Page:Bohemia; a brief evaluation of Bohemia's contribution to civilization (1917).pdf/49

 The inspiration of Úprka is the strength and energy in the life of his Slovaks, with their beautiful, unpolluted lives, their healthful and joyous souls, with which they really created their great master, whose art but recently dazzled all Europe.

Úprka paints his beloved Slovaks just as he finds them; at work in the fields, at rest, on their way home in the ligth of the setting sun, in church in religious revery, in landscape full of the scent of blossoming meadows and ripening crops, picturing them always in gentle but happy colors, mirroring their mild Slovak soul. That, however, which really conquered the art world for Úprka, is his revelry in colors, with which he makes the Slovak landscapes of Southern Moravia actually sing and rejoice.

Adolf Kašpar followed in the footsteps of Manes and Aleš. His German education did not succeed in making him forget his Bohemian origin, or crushing the Bohemian-Slovak spirit. His paintings and sketches show his Bohemianism so strongly that he is indeed a true successor to the national fame that Manes and Aleš attained. In him, too, the Bohemian song and Bohemian books found a splendid illustrator, though he won his fame as the creator of fine etchings. His illustrations for the exquisite edition of the famous novel “Babička”, written by Božena Němcová, in which one of the greatest among Bohemian women pictures charmingly the life of the Bohemian village folk, are worthy of their place in the great book.

The more noted of the young Bohemian artists are Jan Preisler whose paintings portray various moods of Nature and are characterized by rich colors and a certain dreamy, mysterious, indescribable charm. With him ranks Hugo BoetingerBoettinger [sic], a refined portrait painter, František Šimon, a creator of wonderful etchings, nurtured in Paris and known also in American art circles, Jakub Obrovský, a Moravian artist of deep penetration.

In the European world of art, the portrait painter, Max Švabinský, won great fame. He is a professor at the Academy of arts in Prague. His pen and brush produced a whole line of portraits of great men of our nation, each portrait being in itself a work of a perfect artist.