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House of Art
TUES–SUN 10:00–18:00

Landscape with farm track

undated

oil, cardboard, 45 × 52 cm

posthumous estate donation in 2020

Kaván was skilled at capturing the atmosphere of his favourite landscapes – particularly mountainous regions in North Bohemia (the Krkonoše mountains), the Bohemian-Moravian uplands, the Iron Hills in East Bohemia, and South Bohemia. He painted outdoors in all four seasons; his winter scenes dating from around the turn of the 20th century are particularly prized. His canvases create a fresh impression, and his compositions frequently accentuate depth and perspective. Kaván almost never painted figural staffage in his landscapes; nature, in all its multiple facets, offered sufficient inspiration for him. His landscapes feature focal points such as rural buildings, solitary trees or ponds – which he loved (similarly to Antonín Chittussi).


KAVÁN FRANTIŠEK

(1866–1941) was a student of Julius Mařák. He was known as one of the leading Czech landscape painters working around the turn of the 20th century. The Gallery of Fine Arts in Ostrava originally had eight of his works in its collections, and in 2020 we acquired a further three canvases; we now own a relatively sizeable collection of works by this prominent Czech representative of realistic landscape painting. From the beginning of his studies at the Prague Academy of Fine Arts, František Kaván was recognized as a significant new talent, and his work was featured at the Prague Jubilee Exhibition in 1891. At this stage he was still working in a Romantic idiom; elements of realism only began to appear in his paintings during the following year. In the mid-1890s, after he left the Prague Academy, Kaván’s works embraced symbolist tendencies under the influence of the Moderní revue magazine. At the beginning of the 20th century this symbolism was replaced by a realistic idiom, in which he quickly became accomplished – as reflected in his gold medal at the 1900 World Fair in Paris. Kaván’s works are characterized by his sensitive approach to colour and his talent for depicting detail.
oil, cardboard, 45 × 52 cm, posthumous estate donation in 2020
undated

Winter in the village

oil, cardboard, 45 × 52 cm, posthumous estate donation in 2020
undated

Avenue of rowan trees

Girl in a fur

Girl in a fur

undated
Old Eroticism

Old Eroticism

1996
Concrete (Below a Slag-Heap)

Concrete (Below a Slag-Heap)

1983
Wallachian Madonna

Wallachian Madonna

1921
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