Lot 756: HOLY Miloslav (4. 7. 1897 Prague - 3. 3. 1974

HOLY Miloslav (4. 7. 1897 Prague - 3. 3. 1974 Prague) Cottages Oil on canvas mounted on plywood, 28 x 37,5 cm, framed, undated, signed lower right. Czech painter and graphic artist, he studied under professor Bukovac, J. Obrovsky and M. Svabinsky at the Academy of Arts in Prague. Together with K. Holan, P. Kotik and K. Kotrba he founded a group called Social group. He was a member of Umelecka beseda and SCUG Hollar. He belonged to the generation affected by World War I, which resulted in his concern with social subjects in the 1920s. He depicted the life of common people and motifs from the working class outskirts of Prague. After the mid-1920s he turned to landscapes and townscapes, he also produced still-lifes, portraits and nudes. The year 1927 was a turning point in his career; he abandoned figural themes, but still remained sensitive to social aspects. In terms of palette he responded to the French Fauves, in the 1930s he reduced linear elements. He developed a new landscape model, concentrating on space and colour, inspired by Impressionism. During World War II he turned to intimate subjects, family life and nudes. In the 1960s he returned to landscapes of subdued colours. See T 1/362, TD 72, V 2/479, B 5/599, Ch 3/238, NECVU 1/277.