Landscape with a Ship

Landscape with a Ship from Karel Černý’s early work, with its expressive brushwork and plein-air character, speaks of the author’s love for the landscape painting. It is also one of the first artworks demonstrating his long-term fascination with bodies of water. He depicted idyllic river sceneries not only from Prague but also from Paris. The Seine River repeatedly came to life under his brushstrokes in the 1940s in intense, pure colours and firm outlines, as Fauvism and Primitivism taught him. His fascination with water surfaces continued in the 1950s when he portrayed the rivers in a broad spectrum of blue tones lined with embankments in numerous variations, sometimes empty, sometimes enlivened by trees, other times replaced by a landscape.

In the presented work, Černý depicted, using his dynamic brushwork, a ship with a rowing boat sailing on the Vltava River, leaving Prague’s Podbaba and heading towards the Kralupy region. The scene is surrounded by hilly terrain on both sides, with picturesque white houses with red roofs in the valleys, matching the characteristic red and white markings on the ship’s chimney. Černý executed this painting the same year he graduated from the Prague Academy. It is an excellent representative of his early atmospheric work of rich expression and muted colours.

The high collectible value of this work is enhanced by its purchase from the Waldes collection. Subsequently, it belonged to collection of the National Gallery Prague (inv. no. O 2198). It was reproduced in the artist’s monograph (V. Lahoda: Karel Černý, Prague 2003, p. 91 and p. 172 of the inventory). The painting comes from an important Prague collection and is registered as a cultural monument of the Czech Republic. Assessed during consultations by prof. J. Zemina and PhDr. J. Machalický. The expertise of prof. PhDr. R. Michalová, Ph.D., is attached.