Karel Cerný

Karel Cerný was one of the most talented Czech painters of the first half of the 20th century. Due to lack of financial resources he was twenty-three years old before he entered the Prague Academy of Fine Arts where his teacher was Jakub Obrovský. From the very start of his career he was a loner. The Mánes association was the only major artists' grouping that he joined. In 1946, in the wake of World War II he made his first foreign trip to Paris, to which he returned several times. From the mid-1930s the themes of his paintings were café society, lovers and weeping women. In the 1940s his subject matter also included Paris, Prague and still lifes. Cerný's style is unmistakable. He worked with strong black outlines that defined figures in a very clear and distinctive manner. He was able to heighten the overall atmosphere of his paintings by sensitive colour work that is seemingly sparing but actually well thought out. Following the Nazi occupation he reduced his use of colour and his paintings become darker.