Adolf J. Alex:Procopius of Sázava&Hobbled nude devil/ORIGINAL ETCHING 1935
Specification
Continent: #Europa #Bohemia
Motive: #Religious life #Procopius’ legend #Saint Procopius of Sázava
Artist’s Main Feature: #The Bohemian-born professional artists of the highest calibre ADOLF JELÍNEK ALEX (1890-1957) was a best known in Czech engraver, painter and writer. He graduated from the the Prague School of Arts, Architecture and Design before attending the Munich Academy of Fine Art where his teacher was prof. Janka. Regardless of this fact he formed as an maturer artist in Prag only in the Prague Fine Art Academy under the strong influence of the famous Graphic School of Max Švabinský with its social thematic, who was his leader teacher in the area of etching. He opted unambiguously for social realism to strive from the start to express reality as he objectively saw or imagined it. He preferred to work with moving objects as horses.
Subject: # The view of a theme of Procopius’ legend shows entangled devil as a young nude boy and the Saint holding a bludgeon as his attribute. The Saint tied the devil with his belt which he had. The staffage represents an abstract mystical space in forest with the studies trees, flowers with their roots and stones.
The hermit Saint Procopius of Sázava (Latin: Procopius Sazavensis, died 25 March 1053) was a Czech canon and hermit, canonised as a saint of the Catholic church in 1204. Procopius was the founding abbot of the Benedictine monastery of Sázava lying South-East of Prague. He has always been one of the most popular Bohemian saints because in early medieval Bohemia his monastery was the only one where the liturgy was celebrated in the Old Slavonic language.
The St. Procopius’ legend was an epic poem of Czech poet and dramatist Jaroslav Vrchlický which was published in the year 1884.
Such mystical themes arose in Alex's works after his Italian voyage. As Fritz von Unruh in Germany Adlof J. Alex tried to change revolutionary the tradition religious picture.
Epoche//Age: #1935
Medium: #etching
Location: #Bohemia
Originality: # The original etching from the cycle «Legend about St. Procopes» was published in number 400 prints in Prague in the year 1935, after the end of printing the plates were demolished. It is print number 280.
Signature: signed by the author with his seal and monogram AJA in the form of trefoil
Size (in mm):
With Passe-partout is ca. 345 x 250
The overall size is ca. 210 x 155
The image size is ca. 175 x 135
Size (in inches):
With Passe-partout is ca. 13.6 x 9.8
The overall size is ca. 8.3 x 6
The image size is ca. 6.9 x 5.3
Condition:
Grading: Good
Corners: Good
Writing to back: No
Writing to front: Signature as seal of the author, Number of prints 280/400
Stains on front: No
Stains on back: No
Creases or bends: No
Tears: No
Pin holes: No
Artist: #The provincial Bohemian-born professional artists of the highest calibre ADOLF JELÍNEK ALEX (1890-1957) was a best known in his state engraver, painter and writer. He graduated from the the Prague School of Arts, Architecture and Design before attending the Munich Academy of Fine Art as a pupil of prof. Janka. Regardless of this fact he developed to the maturer engraver in Prag only in the Prague Fine Art Academy under the strong influence of the famous Graphic School of Max Švabinský with its social spirit. He was a closer follower of Švabinský but only in manner being free in his choice of subject, which was the moving horses in landscape background.
He opted unambiguously for social realism to strive from the start to express reality as he objectively saw or imagined it. He preferred to work with moving objects as horses. At the beginning his artistic live he succeeds best in portraits and figurative art. His beloved subjects was to depict different kinds of movement of animals. That is why he would like the subjects of horses standing on their hind legs, riders, moving chariots, gypsies and the like, which he could depict with great liveliness and persuasiveness. After his voyage to the Italy he liked to depict some new motives as mystical landscape compositions with ruined architecture as churches and domes chiefly taken from the neighbourhood of Rome. In addition, he also depicts various constructions of the buildings and bridges. There are a lot of his very famous illustrations of books for the various bibliographic editions. There were his numerous etchings for Pushkin’s poetic novel Eugene Onegin in 1923. He has also written and decorated several independent novels. In 1924 he had also participated in the exhibition of Czech graphic artists in Paris and his etching «to the market» was published in the French magazine «L’art et décoration».
There are a lot of his works of art in the Albertinum Museum in Vienna, in the Städel Museum at Frankfurt/Mein, in the National Gallery in Prague.