HYNAIS, VOJTECH (1854-1925)

**PRICE ON APPLICATION**

"The Red Cape" (c.1890) 
oil on panel
cm
signed lower right
*private collection, Sydney
 
Vojtěch Adalbert Hynais is a famous, award-winning Czech Painter & founding member of the Vienna Secession. He began studying at the Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna in 1870, under Carl Wurzinger & August Eisenmenger, & at Anselm Feuerbach's school in spring 1873; he was considered to be one of his most promising students. Hynais lived in Paris from 1878-93, where he learnt from Paul-Jacques-Aimé Baudry & Jean-Léon Gérôme, & was an acquaintance of fellow Czech master, Alfons Mucha.  In 1885, he received an honorable mention from the 1885 Universal Exhibition of Fine Arts, and a first-class medal at the 1889 World's Fair. During the 1870s, art was being produced to decorate the under-construction Prague National Theatre. Hynais was not considered to be suitably representative of the national spirit by Czech art critics because he lived in, & had absorbed too much influence from, Vienna. Hynais' work for the National Theatre of Prague is what he is mostly remembered for; he was part of the "Generation of the National Theatre" In 1894, his work won a medal, first class, at the Antwerp World's Fair. He became a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts, Prague in 1894. While living in Prague, Hynais was a founding member of the Vienna Secession, where he was a contemporary of Gustav Klimt. In 1900, Hynais painted the ceiling of the Pantheon in the Royal State Museum, Prague; Hynais's parts were described as being "the best of what was created in the whole vast building and perhaps in all of Prague". In 1923, he was made an Officer of the Légion d'honneur, & in 1924 was granted an honorary professorship at the Prague Academy. His works are represented in several major institutions, including the National Gallery Prague!