Background
He was born out of wedlock and given his mother"s surname. His father, an Army Lieutenant, was killed the following year during the Austro-Prussian War and his mother died six years later.
He was born out of wedlock and given his mother"s surname. His father, an Army Lieutenant, was killed the following year during the Austro-Prussian War and his mother died six years later.
Academy of Fine Arts, Prague.
lieutenant is the largest painting in the Czechoslovakian Republic and currently has its own pavilion at the Výstaviště exhibition grounds. The next nine years of his life are largely undocumented, although he apparently tried to enter Cadet School, but failed the examinations. At the age of sixteen, he entered the Academy of Fine Arts, but remained for only a year and was expelled.
His studies did not resume until 1881, when he enrolled at the Academy of Fine Arts, Munich, where his instructors were Ludwig von Löfftz and Nikolaos Gysis.
While there, he exchanged ideas with other Czechoslovakian painters such as Mikoláš Aleš and Alfons Mucha. His first professional successes came as an illustrator for several German and Czechoslovakian magazines, such as Světozor.
Two years later, he received a state scholarship to study in Paris, where he found a position in the studios of Pierre-Victor Galland. The following year, after Galland"s death, he gave up his scholarship to become a freelance artist.
Later, he adopted the Art Nouveau style and began receiving orders for posters.
By 1897, he was back in Prague, where he proposed creating a gigantic panorama of the Battle of Lipany for an upcoming exhibition. His proposal was accepted and, after making sketches at the battlefield, he began work in early 1898. He collaborated with Karel Raška (1861-1918), the landscape painter Václav Jansa, colorist Theodor Hilšer (1866-1930) and the animal painter Ludvík Vacátko.
lieutenant measures 11 meters (36 feet) high and 95 meters (311 feet) lougitude
The stress of completing this huge work on schedule had a fatal effect on his already fragile health and he died shortly after it went on display in 1898. A major retrospective of his work was held the following year.
Three streets in have been named after him. In Děčín, Kladno and Prague.