Page:Historical paintings of the Slavic nations by Alfons Mucha (1921).pdf/8



they were usually in sorry straits for food. Virtually all they had to subsist upon was a huge round loaf of black bread and a can of pork grease which the room-mate’s peasant family was in the habit of supplying at stated intervals. And Mucha, being the more accomplished draughtsman of the two, would scientifically mark off with chalk the exact amount of bread to be consumed each day, the pork grease serving as butter.

The lad’s love of art was so persistent, and his ability so exceptional, that his master, Zelený, a benign, bearded old man who habitually arrayed himself in a long black cloak and high boots, persuaded him to seek admission to the Academy of Fine Arts at Prague. Lhota, the director of the academy proved, however, distinctly pessimistic regarding the young man’s capacity for artistic expression, and summarily admonished him to renounce his ambitions and become a government clerk. Discouraged but not