89th Auction, lot 182 Painted with sensitive yet swift brushstrokes, The Cobbler’s Family represents the early work of a great Czech modern artist and a founding member of the Tvrdošíjní group, Rudolf Kremlička. It depicts the artist’s favourite subject-matter of the time – the family of the cobbler Kopecký and its life in the Kameničky village. The picturesque region of Kameničky, which Antonín Slavíček made famous within Czech landscape painting, was attractive to artists at the beginning of the 20th century. However, Rudolf Kremlička was more fascinated by the fate of the local inhabitants than the charming landscape below the peaks of the Bohemian-Moravian Highlands. He probably inherited his interest in genre painting from his teacher Hanuš Schweiger, to whose school he came in 1907, i.e. at a time when the academic environment was stacked full with debates about Munch’s expressiveness and French modern painting. In the restless bustle of this time, Kremlička rather immured himself. With his typical work commitment and effort, he succeeded in impressing his professor and was awarded the Hlávka scholarship. In 1910, he left for his professor’s beloved Holland. However, a trip to Paris determined that he stayed in France for the rest of his scholarship and only pretended to be in Holland. He gradually became acquainted with the paintings of Ingres, Corot, Manet, Degas, Renoir, French impressionists and post-impressionists. After returning to Prague in 1911, he again devoted himself to genre painting, in which we can already observe a change. In 1912, he obtained his second scholarship and spent it again in Paris rather than Holland. After his return, his paintings left the model of Schweiger’s folk figures and started being filled with realistic, even naturalistic curiosity. It is precisely this social sensitivity that never completely disappeared from Kremlička’s works. Another feature of the artist’s new approach is the delicate, even intimate lighting arrangement. This fundamental shift, which guided Kremlička on the path to a gradual transformation leading to the co-founding of the Tvrdošíjní group and the formation of his own modern artistic opinion, is presented in The Cobbler’s Family. The work is reproduced full-page in the monograph by PhDr. K. Srp (Rudolf Kremlička, Academia, Prague 2006, p. 50, fig. 46) and was presented at the artist’s exhibition in the Stone Bell House (Prague City Gallery, 18 December 2006 – 21 January 2007, cat. No. 46). It comes from a high-quality Prague collection. Assessed during consultations by prof. J. Zemina and PhDr. R. Michalová, Ph.D. The expertise of PhDr. K. Srp is attached.