Following the success of the exhibition Josef Mánes / Man – Artist – Legend, organised by the NGP at the Waldenstein Riding School in 2023, Mánes’s work from the NGP collections will be presented in connection with his stays in Moravia on a more intimate scale at the Archbishop’s Chateau in Kroměříž.
Mánes made his first trip devoted to the study of the countryside in 1846, when he visited northern Moravia, Silesia and the Krákow region. Three years later, he was sent to the Imperial Congress in Kroměříž by the Union of Fine Artists to portray Czech politicians. Moravia enchanted Mánes with its natural beauty and rich folklore and became his “second home”, offering him inspiration for his work as well as respite during his psychological crises.
The bonds of friendship formed another important link with Moravia, particularly with the Silva Tarouca family, at whose chateau in Čechy pod Kosířem he stayed repeatedly throughout the 1850s and 1860s. “For Moravia, for Moravia / my heart yearns. To Čechy, to Čechy / let me go, gods” is an extract from a poem Mánes composed as a gift for his host, Count August Alexander Silva Tarouca, and his spouse, Isabella Sofie. He became involved with the noble family as a teacher of drawing, an organiser of social life and an expert advisor on matters of art. In addition to portraits and a set of paintings in the style of Second Rococo, he also created a number of small, “ornamental trifles” for the chateau: decorated letter papers, illustrations, designs for furniture and decorative objects and fans. The chateau also served as his base for trips into the surrounding area, from which came many drawn studies of folk costume and nature.
The exhibition presents a wide range of Mánes’s work through approx. 90 drawings and paintings: official commissions in the form of prints of Czech politicians, work for the Union of Fine Artists, studies of nature, works created for the Silva Tarouca family and, above all, a set of studies of folk costume made during his stays in the Haná region. The exhibition will include drawings that were not part of the Prague exhibition.
organiser: The Administration of the Archbishop’s Chateau and Gardens in Kroměříž in collaboration with the National Gallery Prague
curators: Markéta Vondrová, Veronika Hulíková
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