DOI issue:
Nr. 2
DOI article:Prahl, Roman: Bohemians in Prague in the latter half of the nineteenth century
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.51715#0153
authorities. There is a well-documented case of a
young artist from Czech intellectual circles who
threatened to commit suicide.4
In Prague the conditions for the artists’ move-
ment and the emergence of bohemia were created
by the nationalist and démocratie révolution of 1848,
and the repression that followed its defeat. For a
time the city’s art institutions were in crisis, and their
opponents from the ranks of Czech artists founded
a formai association, the Artists’ Union Jednota
výtvarných umělců), which operated for several years
under the neo-absolutist régime of the Austrian
Empire despite coming under surveillance by the
secret police. The Artists’ Union had an informai
counterpart in a group of older students and gradu-
âtes from the Academy of Art in Prague, who met
in the 1850s at a café owned by Ludwig Paul Lorenz,
where they conversed and amused themselves, in part
by parodying the official art scene.
Cafés began opening in Prague during the 1850s
in line with the fashion for drinking coffee. They
became the habitat of a certain type of bohemian,
although as a rule artists and bohemians preferred
stronger drinks. The circle of artists who met at
Lorenz’s café followed the Czech custom of drinking
beer as a form of alcohol that was affordable for a
broad cross-section of society. This can be seen in
one of two drawings portraying this group, which
looks like a depiction of a meeting of mature men
with reading materials and glasses of beer. The cuit
of beer also dictated one of the notable examples
of work improvised in the café, which verges on
ridiculing the official art of Prague [Fig. 2]. The
drawing parodies the most important monument
in Prague in the neo-absolutist era, and it is either a
humorous take on the Contemporary issue of design
m the applied arts, presenting a design for a beer jug,
or an expression of bohemia’s opposition to official
art and its standards.5
This concerned the son of the prominent Czech writer Bo-
žena Němcová and his art studies in Munich in 1860 — 1861.
See PRAHL, R.: Umělectví a bída u Jaroslava Němce [Jaroslav
Němec: Artistry and Poverty]. In: ADAM, R. (ed.): Božena
Němcová — jazyková a literární komunikace ve středoevropském
kontextu [Božena Němcová — Linguistic and Literary Com-
munication in the Central European Context], Praha 2007,
pp. 41-49.
2. Karel Purkyné: Caricature of the Monument to Field Marshai Ra-
detzky (design for a beer jug), 1859. Prague, National Gallery. Photo:
Archive of the gallery.
5 For the most detailed analysis of the monument, which was
designed by the director of the Academy of Art in Prague, and
its context and réception, see KONEČNÝ, L. — PRAHL, R.:
Pomník maršála Radeckého a ikonografie hrdiny na štítě [The
145
young artist from Czech intellectual circles who
threatened to commit suicide.4
In Prague the conditions for the artists’ move-
ment and the emergence of bohemia were created
by the nationalist and démocratie révolution of 1848,
and the repression that followed its defeat. For a
time the city’s art institutions were in crisis, and their
opponents from the ranks of Czech artists founded
a formai association, the Artists’ Union Jednota
výtvarných umělců), which operated for several years
under the neo-absolutist régime of the Austrian
Empire despite coming under surveillance by the
secret police. The Artists’ Union had an informai
counterpart in a group of older students and gradu-
âtes from the Academy of Art in Prague, who met
in the 1850s at a café owned by Ludwig Paul Lorenz,
where they conversed and amused themselves, in part
by parodying the official art scene.
Cafés began opening in Prague during the 1850s
in line with the fashion for drinking coffee. They
became the habitat of a certain type of bohemian,
although as a rule artists and bohemians preferred
stronger drinks. The circle of artists who met at
Lorenz’s café followed the Czech custom of drinking
beer as a form of alcohol that was affordable for a
broad cross-section of society. This can be seen in
one of two drawings portraying this group, which
looks like a depiction of a meeting of mature men
with reading materials and glasses of beer. The cuit
of beer also dictated one of the notable examples
of work improvised in the café, which verges on
ridiculing the official art of Prague [Fig. 2]. The
drawing parodies the most important monument
in Prague in the neo-absolutist era, and it is either a
humorous take on the Contemporary issue of design
m the applied arts, presenting a design for a beer jug,
or an expression of bohemia’s opposition to official
art and its standards.5
This concerned the son of the prominent Czech writer Bo-
žena Němcová and his art studies in Munich in 1860 — 1861.
See PRAHL, R.: Umělectví a bída u Jaroslava Němce [Jaroslav
Němec: Artistry and Poverty]. In: ADAM, R. (ed.): Božena
Němcová — jazyková a literární komunikace ve středoevropském
kontextu [Božena Němcová — Linguistic and Literary Com-
munication in the Central European Context], Praha 2007,
pp. 41-49.
2. Karel Purkyné: Caricature of the Monument to Field Marshai Ra-
detzky (design for a beer jug), 1859. Prague, National Gallery. Photo:
Archive of the gallery.
5 For the most detailed analysis of the monument, which was
designed by the director of the Academy of Art in Prague, and
its context and réception, see KONEČNÝ, L. — PRAHL, R.:
Pomník maršála Radeckého a ikonografie hrdiny na štítě [The
145