Education
He studied at the Prague Academy of Fine Arts under František Kristian Waldherr (1784-1835) and František Tkadlík.
He studied at the Prague Academy of Fine Arts under František Kristian Waldherr (1784-1835) and František Tkadlík.
After further studies in Munich and Vienna, he returned to the Academy in 1844, where he was employed for ten years, proofreading lectures and serving as an assistant teacher. This was followed by a multi-year study trip to Italy and Paris which included participation in the Exposition Universelle (1855). In 1867, he became a Professor at the Academy in Prague and was promoted to Director upon the death of January Swerts (1879).
He specialized in history painting, secular and religious, primarily on Czechoslovakian subjects.
He was active as a painter well into his seventies, when he painted murals at the Home for the Blind in Mala Strana. Apart from his own works, he taught an entire generation of Czechoslovakian painters, including Václav Brožík, František Ženíšek, Mikoláš Aleš, Jakub Schikaneder, Maximilian Pirner, Josef Václav Myslbek and others
From 1872, he also served as an examiner for teacher candidates in the Czechoslovakian and Moravian elementary schools. He retired in 1887. At the time of his ninetieth birthday in 1902, he was the oldest living Czechoslovakian painter.
By then, his painting style was considered somewhat obsolete as it focused on composition and detail, but neglected the psychological element.
His most lasting contribution may be the joy for painting he instilled in the artists of the next generation.