12 Works, Today, April 19th is artist Emanuel Krescenc Liška's day, his story, illustrated with footnotes #108

After Emanuel Krecenc Liška

Hagar and Ishmael

Porcelain Plaque

7.5" H x 12.75" W 

Private collection

Fox, Emanuel Krescenc (19 April 1852, in Mikulovice – 18 January 1903, in Prague) was a Bohemian painter and illustrator. Most of his works were on religious themes, but he also created scenes from works of poetry.

Emanuel Krescenc Liska (Czech, 1852–1903)

Pierrot's rest , c. 1884

Oil on Canvas

39.4 x 55.8 cm. (15.5 x 22 in.)

Private collection

Pierrot is a stock character of pantomime and commedia dell'arte whose origins are in the late seventeenth-century Italian troupe of players performing in Paris and known as the Comédie-Italienne. His character in contemporary popular culture is that of the sad clown, pining for love of Columbine, who usually breaks his heart and leaves him for Harlequin. Performing unmasked, with a whitened face, he wears a loose white blouse with large buttons and wide white pantaloons. Sometimes he appears with a frilled collaret and a hat, usually with a close-fitting crown and wide round brim, more rarely with a conical shape like a dunce's cap. More on Pierrot

In the years 1869-1873 he studied at the Prague Academy of Painting and in 1874 he became a drawing assistant at the state real grammar school in Prague. He then studied for 3 years at the academy under the guidance of Director Swerts. Apart from illustrations and smaller genre pictures, his allegorical cartons come from this period: Vltava , The Origin of the National Song and Mor.

Fox Emanuel Krescenc (1852-1903)

Augur (Bird carrier), c. 1890

Oil on cardboard

54 x 25

Private collection

With the help of the Klara Foundation, he left for Munich in 1878, where he was a student of Professor O. Seitz at the academy until 1880. In 1879 he won the second prize (the first was not awarded) from the competition for the decoration of the passage of the National Theater in Prague and two years later he painted a frieze in the royal bed salon together with Schikanedr in the same theater, which was later destroyed by fire. His most famous work is a copy of Mánes' moons on the calendar board of the Prague Astronomical Clock, which he completed in December 1880.

Emanuel Krescenc Liška  (1852–1903)

Hagar and Ishmael in the desert, c. 1883

Oil on wood

14x20,5 cm

National Gallery in Prague 

Emanuel Krescenc Liška  (1852–1903)

Hagar and Ishmael in the desert, c. 1883

Oil on canvas

Height: 173 cm (68.1 in); Width: 260 cm (102.3 in)

Gallery of Western Bohemia

Hagar is a biblical person in the Book of Genesis Chapter 16. She was an Egyptian handmaid of Sarah, who gave her to Abraham "to wife" to bear a child. The product of the union was Abraham's firstborn, Ishmael, the progenitor of the Ishmaelites.

After Sarah gave birth to Isaac, and the tension between the women returned. At a celebration after Isaac was weaned, Sarah found the teenage Ishmael mocking her son, and demanded that Abraham send Hagar and her son away. She declared that Ishmael would not share in Isaac's inheritance. Abraham was greatly distressed but God told Abraham to do as his wife commanded because God's promise would be carried out through both Isaac and Ishmael.

The name Hagar originates from the Book of Genesis, and is only alluded to in the Qur'an. She is considered Abraham's second wife in the Islamic faith and acknowledged in all Abrahamic faiths. In mainstream Christianity, she is considered a concubine to Abraham. More on Hagar

Emanuel Krescenc Fox

The morning after Good Friday, c. end of 19th century

Oil on canvas

height / length 40 cm, width 86 cm

Gallery of Modern Art in Roudnice nad Labem

Holy Saturday , or Easter Eve, is the final day of Holy Week, between Good Friday and Easter Sunday, when Christians prepare for the latter. The day commemorates the Harrowing of Hell while Jesus Christ's body lay in the tomb. Christians of the Catholic, Lutheran, Methodist, Anglican and Reformed denominations begin the celebration of the Easter Vigil service on Holy Saturday, which provides a transition to the season of Eastertide; in the Moravian Christian tradition, graves are decorated with flowers during the day of Holy Saturday and the celebration of the sunrise service starts before dawn on Easter Sunday. More on Holy Saturday

After returning from Munich, he created many genre paintings: The Old Bachelor, Morning Ash Wednesdays, etc., and later the large canvases by Hagar and Ismael (1883) (See above). He made his painting debut at the International Art Exhibition in Munich. The painting was then exhibited in Prague in 1884 and bought by the publisher Šimáček. Its reproduction was published as the premiere of Světozor. Today, the painting is preserved in the city picture gallery in Pilsen. In 1884, Liška painted the mural of the Crucified and Christ in Gethsemane in the chapel of St. Raphael at the Klar Institute for the Blind. At the request of SVUP in Prague, the painting Cain was created in 1885 in Munich (See below). 

Emanuel Krescenc Liška

Cain, c. 1885

Oil on canvas

height 110 cm, width 202,5 cm

National Gallery Prague

Liška painted this picture towards the end of his study stay in Munich. The well-known story of the biblical fratricide was a frequent and welcome subject for both literature and art. The painter was certainly familiar with Byron's drama "Cain" and with Vrchlický's poem "Sandalfon" - Byron was an important source of inspiration and Vrchlický a close friend. Although Liška handled the motif in the spirit of contemporaneous German Naturalism, he endowed it with a mood charged with emotions. A striking feature of the naked, miserable Cain, lying on a deserted rocky shore, are brilliant contours, elegant drawing, minute details of the highly emotional landscape and, above all, an original colour scheme and effective harmonious light. The whole scene bespeaks Liška's refined painting technique and a feeling for effect in the rendering of his mystical and religious world. More on this painting

Emanuel Krecenc Liška

KAIN (STUDIE)

Oil on canvas

35.5 x 61 cm 

Private collection

Emanuel Krescenc Liška

Christ on the Mount of Olives, c. 1886

Oil on canvas

height 188,5 cm, width 128,5 cm

National Gallery Prague

This is one of Liška’s most popular paintings, at the time its reproduction could be found in many a Czech household. Liška painted the picture in Rome for his patron Rudolf M. count Klár, who had the painting installed athe St Raphael chapel of the Institute for the Blind at Klárov in Prague. Liška’s concept of the praying Christ moves us not only with its fervour and emotional charge, but also with its sophisticated colours and illusive naturalism. In Liška’s lifetime the painting was frequently exhibited and reproduced also with the title Thy will be done! More on this painting

From October 1885 to April 1888, Fox traveled around Italy and resided in Rome, with the support of the Klar Foundation. In Rome he painted for the chapel of St. Raphael's painting of Christ on Mount of Olives (1885) (See above) and an altarpiece for the church in Rosenheim, Bavaria. In addition to numerous landscape studies, a large painting of Emperor Maximimian reveals his victims at this time, for which he won his second gold medal at the international exhibition in Munich. The painting was exhibited in 1889 on Žofín Island in Prague under electric lighting, which became the cause of a catastrophe in which a large part of the painting was destroyed. Liška also used his Roman study of moonlight in the paintings of Michel-Angel Buonarotti's Dream  and The Widower.

Emanuel Krescenc Liska (Czech, 1852–1903)

Newly wedded, Venice , c. 1887

Oil on Canvas

110.8 x 81.3 cm. (43.6 x 32 in.)

Private collection

Emanuel Krescenc Liska (Czech, 1852–1903)

Italská vila, c. 1903

Oil on canvas

Private collection

From 1888 he was a professor at the School of Arts and Crafts in Prague. He was a member of Umělecká beseda (since 1875), ČAVU (since 1892) and a founding member of the Union of Fine Artists (JUV, 1898).

Emanuel Krescenc Fox, (1852–1903)

Good neighbors

Oil on canvas, c. 1896

82.5x102.5 cm

Private collection

He is the author of the emblem of the town of Loděnice. He has created a large number of excellent works of art, large canvases, especially in Munich, with which he made his debut at international art exhibitions. In addition to secular themes, he painted a considerable number of paintings on ecclesiastical motifs, which decorate the spaces of artistic architectural monuments. Some of his works are located in the National Gallery in Prague, Rome and Munich. He died in Prague on January 18, 1903 as a result of transient pneumonia.. More on Emanuel Krescenc Liška

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