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Léna Brauner, originally Léna Vigler, is a 26 years old artist based in Prague, Czech Republic. She says that she loves the process of creating something, no matter if she’s painting, singing, writing or tattooing someone.However, her work is mostly known for portraits and illustrations. In her paintings she captures her mood, and she confirmed that some of the paintings are self-portraits. What is unusual about her style is that sometimes she makes pictures with whatever comes to her mind, for example with chocolate, bread crumbs, hair… You never know what to expect from her, and that's what I really like about her.

Léna grew up in Brdy, and she says that she was bad at art lessons because she always went her own way and never really did what she was supposed to. She studied at Waldorf's lyceum, but she didn't finish the school. At the age of 16 she started selling paintings.
I remember that at one of her exhibitions she was talking about how she sold her first painting. One day she brought her canvas and paints into the public, and one man, who was just passing, asked her if he could buy it. She said that yes and told him that it would cost around 8000,- Czech crowns (or maybe even more). She was just joking because she didn't think that anyone would buy her art. The man didn't answer and continued on his way. A few minutes later he came with all the cash and bought the painting.

From that moment Léna's fame started growing, and she had many succesful exhibitions. Most of the paintings were sold within a few hours.

Now she has a 4 years old daughter called Jasmína, who inspires her in many ways. Unlike her when she was small, Jasmína is an extrovert and loves attention.

Not so long ago, Léna published her illustrations to a fantasy book called Justýnka a asistenční jednorožec and an illustrated diary. From her Instagram posts we can see that she is working on her next paintings.

References:

http://www.pluska.sk/dobre-jedlo/rady-tipy/vnucka-majora-zemana-kresli-zo-zvyskov-cokolady.html

https://ona.idnes.cz/lena-brauner-vnucka-vladimira-brabce-majora-zemana-fsv-/spolecnost.aspx?c=A171103_114210_spolecnost_jup

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubJEovbF6gs

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Alfons Mucha was the most famous painter and decorative artist of the European Art Nouveau. He is best known for his paintings , illustrations and decorative art. He’s also considered the most famous Czech painter.

He was born on 24th July 1860 in Ivančice, and he died on 14th July 1939 in Prague. He studied at a Slavic grammar school, and after he finished the school, he went to the Munich academy of Fine Arts. After 2 years studying there, he moved to Paris, where he went to Academia Julian, from which he soon moved to Academia Colarossi. In 1906 he married Marie Chytilová, and they had two children together- Jaroslava and Jiří, who later became a writer and a journalist.

Alfons Mucha became famous thanks to the Gismonda theater poster, which he designed for a Parisian actress Sarah Bernhardt. Later he designed some more theater posters for her.

His lifelong and most famous work is a set of large-format paintings- The Slav Epic (Slovanská epopej), which he worked on for 18 years. It is a series of 20 huge paintings showing the history of the Czech and Slavic people.

Besides painting he also proposed posters (for example theater posters), postage stamps and banknotes for the Czech Republic.

SOME OF HIS OTHER WORKS

-Painting- fruit and flower

-Painting- daydream

-Painting- spirit of spring

-Theater posters- Gismonda, Medea, Tosca and a lot of others

Some of his works are showed at the Mucha museum in Prague.

theater poster- Gismonda

painting- daydream

painting- fruit and flower

REFERENCES:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alphonse_Mucha

http://zivotopisyonline.cz/alfons-mucha-nejvyznamnejsi-malir-evropske-secese/

http://home.pinknet.cz/~malin/mucha-cz.html

https://images.google.com/

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Jaroslav Róna is a Czech painter and sculptor. He was born on the 27th of April 1957. Róna is best known for his sculptures yet his
paintings are magnificent as well. Amongst his most famous sculptures is the Franz Kafka memorial in Prague.
Róna’s older sculptures were usually quite abstract and not that complicated. His newer ones are most of the time humanoid creatures or animals (like Gé - Pes, shown below) of some sort. A lot of sculptures which were
meant to be in public spaces, he made in smaller scales. Róna makes almost all
of his sculptures from bronze.

His paintings are usually very sad, gloomy and depressive. They usually feature war, death and some nudity. Most are very dark and only a few have any lighter colour. Some are based upon historical events and myths yet others feature a dystopian future and sci-fi. The painting Monstra (featured below) is very dark but is still one of the more positive ones, and I really like it. It features no death, unlike many others.

My favourite painting of his is Gejzír. It is undoubtedly one of Róna’s most positive
paintings. A lot of his art I’m not necessarily a fan of for many reasons. The
painting I dislike the most is possibly Portrét vojáka, as I am
not a fan of portraits in general, and this one is way too sad. I also don’t
really like the paintings that display death too prominently, for example přitažlivost.

I find Jaroslav Róna interesting because of how depressive yet beautiful his paintings are. They have a very deep meaning and most of them prominently show death and depression. He must be an interesting person to meet, which I almost have.

Sources:

http://www.jaroslav-rona.cz/dila/obrazy/

https://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaroslav_Róna

http://www.ceskenoviny.cz/zpravy/bavi-me-malba-i-sochy-ktere-jsou-stale-vetsi-rika-jaroslav-rona/1478006

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Mikoláš Aleš was a Czech painter, designer, decorator and illustrator. He was also one of the most important personalities in the history of classical Czech art of the 19th century.
Mikolaš Aleš was born in the year 1852 in Mirotice near Písek, into a relatively rich family of 4. Aleš´s family consisted of his brothers František and Jan and his mom Veronika Alšová. Also his dad František Aleš, who was a writer and later a city secretary , was probably the reason Mikolaš started writing and was so good at it. Due to financial difficulties, the whole family moved several times. First to Písek and then 2 years later to Prague. However, there were no improvements in the situation, and Aleš returned to MiroticE in February 1859. In the year 1862 Mikoláš went to the primary school in Písek , and in 1865 the  gymnasium, which he had to leave due to a disagreement with one of the professors. So Aleš strated /SP studying art. In 1867 he joined the second class of Písecká reálka , where he studiet until 1869, that is when he entered the Prague academy of art. In 1879, he got married to Marina Kailová and moved  to Italy where he continued his career in painting.
Mikoláš started showing  interest in painting at an early age of 4, and has painted and published over 5000 pictures and over all 8000 of all kinds of works of art. He was first noted for his art skills for his drawings of Czech country sides and nature. His career of painting started in 1873, 3 years after his older brothers and his dad died, so he had to make his own money.First, while he was studying in Prague, he painted and sold pictures on the street. Then he started cooperating with newspapers, which he drew pictures FOR regularly. Then he had to stop his work and studying, because he went to the army.
After his service in THE army he and Frantiek Ženišek won the possibility of decorating the foyer OF the National Theater (They decorated many houses together including Rottův dům, which ended up being one of Mikoláš's greatest accomplishments.) The same year Mikoláš married Marina Kailová and together they moved to Italy. In the year 1880 he returned to Prague and worked on fourteen big lunets for the National Theater. He also came back to illustrating newspapers and drawing cards, mostly because of financial reasons . He drew the best of his pictures in the 1890s (for example Život Starých slovanů) when he was well know ,  and respected as an artist . He passed away in 1913 at the age of 60.
SOURCES:
http://www.edejiny.cz/ales-mikolas/
https://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikol%C3%A1%C5%A1_Ale%C5%A1
https://zivotopis.osobnosti.cz/mikolas-ales.php

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Josef Lada was a Czech painter, illustrator, writer, and stenographer. He was born in a Czech village Hrusice, and the nature of Hrusice was an inspiration for a lot of his art. Therefore, I think, that if he was born anywhere else (in a city perhaps), his art would have been very different. Besides that, he also wrote books for children and illustrated them himself.  Through his life, he painted over 400 paintings and over 15 000 illustrations.

He was born on 17th December 1887 in a cobbler's family. As a half-year-old child, he fell onto a knife and lost his eye. Due to that he saw only with one eye and missed spatial vision. I think, that if this hadn't happened, he would've been even greater, but who knows? He went to Prague at the age of 14 to become an apprentice binder. In painting, he was entirely self-taught and created his own style. He produced landscapes, created frescoes and designed costumes for plays and films. Over the years he created a series of paintings and drawings depicting traditional Czech occupations and wrote and illustrated ''The Adventures of Mikeš'', a little black cat who could talk. He also illustrated the novel named ''The Good Soldier Švejk''.

His art was original, quick-looking and unlike other artists, he didn't try to make it look like a photograph so much. His art may look little childish at first sight, but there is something more in it for sure.

Some interesting facts are for example that the asteroid 17625 Joseflada has been named after him and that his illustrations were an inspiration for a famous Czech poet Jaroslav Seifert while writing one of his collections.

I think that Josef Lada was a great artist and for sure has been very popular in the Czech Republic or maybe even Europe. Here below is some of his artwork.

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František Kupka was a famous Czech painter and graphic artist. He was very important because he was the co-founder of the early phases of the abstract art movement and Orphism (it is focused on pure abstraction and bright colours).

He was born in Opočno on September 23rd 1871, and he died on June 24th 1957. He had five siblings and was the eldest. He was supposed to be a saddler, but then he started studying at Academy of Fine Arts in Prague. Who knows, maybe if he hadn't become an artist he might have been a famous saddler.He studied in Prague, Vienna and Paris. During his first years in Paris he was known for illustrating books, posters and satirical drawings. In 1906 he settled in Paris in Puteaux. His first exhibition took place in Salon d’Automne. His famous pieces are: Disks of Newton, The Cathedral, Planes by colors, The Yellow Scale, Piano Keys Lake.

He lived almost half of his life in Paris, which seems like a dream come true. He created a Czech community in France, so that France could be influenced by Czech art. For his help in war he obtained a capitan title, which is very interesting because you wouldn't have gussed that an artist would have that... Kupka also had hearing and psychological problems. In 1920 he became a professor in Prague and later in Paris.

Now his paintings are very valuable. They cost around 22mil Czech crowns. If he were richer, my great – grandfather would have definitely bought one of them.

References:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/František_Kupka

http://www.artmuseum.cz/umelec.php?art

https://ona.idnes.cz/foto.aspx?r=spolecnost&c=A090605_144602_ona_ony_jup&foto=VES2ba05e_23ONA11a.jpg

http://ografologii.blogspot.cz/2009/05/frantisek-kupka.html

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References:
Wikipedia: Josef Lada, https://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josef_Lada

Czech Radio: Artist, illustrator and landscape painter Josef Lada subject of major retrospective,

http://www.radio.cz/en/section/arts/satirist-illustrator-and-landscape-painter-josef-lada-subject-of-major-retrospectiv

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Jakub was a painter in the 19th century, born on 27th February, 1855 in Prague. His art was affected by an event he has witnessed when he was little. HE saw a murdered woman laying on a ground, and he held trauma within himself for his whole life. Jakub came from a poor German family. Even though his family wasn’t exactly one of the richest, he was still able to pursue his studies in Prague and Munich.

Prague’s Nokturno

In 1891 he taught in Prague’s Art College, today known as UMPRUM. Schikaneder was also involved in the furnishing of the Royal Box in the National Theatre in Prague, although his work was then lost in the fire. After his work in Prague he travelled through Europe, visiting Germany, England, Scotland, The Netherlands, Switzerland, Italy, and France.

He died in 1924, and was buried in Vinohrady, Prague.

Schikanders’ Art was famous thanks to his renowned painting, Murder In The House, and all of his paintings being in a depressing mood, evening or covered in mist. I may as well say mysterious.

His art continues to sell today for high prices. For example, a painting was sold art gallery called At Kampa for six million Kč, and another one was sold in London for nearly ten million.

I personally like his art for the realness in the painting, which captures the moment like if it was a photograph. The paintings remind us that not everything is always sun and joy, and that you need to be prepared for both, happiness and sadness. The emotions Jakub put into his work were always very different from any other paintings you can find in a gallery, which is partly why I love his work. He’s different from others. Another thing why I find him so likable is that he once was a teacher to my great-grandmother, who’s art is still hanging around in our house, and sometimes makes me wonder if she got inspired by his.

Murder in The House

REFERENCES: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jakub_Schikaneder_-_Murder_in_the_House.JPG

http://www.obrazynaplatne.cz/cz/katalog/slavni-maliri/ceske-malirstvi/jakub-schikaneder/Jakub-Schikaneder-Prazske-nokturno/

Zločin na Starém Městě pražském, by Daniela Krolupperová