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#0157
arts. This is reversed in the main part of the drawing
where a woman, evidendy of ill repute, has pushed
an old man to the ground and is snapping his cane.
The old man’s wig, a symbol of conservatism, is a
reference to a motif in paintings and drawings by art-
ists at the time of the bourgeois révolution of 1848.
Nevertheless this explicit aggression directed against
a particular element in Prague by bohemian artists
had no predecessor, and for a long time afterwards
no successor. While the Czech public was generally
sympathetic to young artists, seeing them as a hope
for the nation’s future, from the end of the 1880s
to the mid-1890s the views of young artists did not
take such radical form in public as in 1886, owing
to unusually complicated developments in art and
politics in the city at this time.
A crucial factor in the expansion of the new art
on the public scene in Prague was its connection
with Czech journalism and literatuře. The publish-
ers of newspapers, magazines and books, together
with journalists and writers, became the main chan-
nels for art in the Czech-speaking middle classes.
Related informai societies in Prague in the 1880s
and 1890s included a group of writers, artists and
theatre people who called themselves Mahabharata,
in what may hâve been an ironie reference to the
fragmentation of Czech magazines and writers into
rival factions. In addition the word was difficult to
pronounce and served as an analogy for incompré-
hensible drunken babbling. The group, which had
around eighty members, was based in a pub in the
brewery of an Augustinián monastery in Prague’s
Lesser Town.
Mahabharata was the leading information plat-
form for an alliance of artists, writers, musicians and
theatre people. As a lobby it helped artists from the
younger génération to become established in fash-
ionable Prague. Noted Mahabharata artists included
Mikoláš Aleš, the younger Viktor Oliva, and other
draughtsmen who worked as Illustrators for a satiri-
10 See PRAHL, R.: Kronika umění i města. Alba Mahabharaty a
„časopisu“ raného SVU Mánes [A Chronicle of Art and the
City. The Mahabharata Albums and the “Magazine” of the
Early Mánes Association]. In: Pražský sborník historický [The
Prague Historical Proceedings], 23, 1990, pp. 50-71.
11 Oliva'’s most ambitions large-scale work was the ornamenta-
tion of the façade of the Café Corso, sometimes considered
cal Prague magazine. Mahabharata’s commémorative
albums featured their drawings and are among the
most interesting visual documents of artistic Prague
at this time.10 The albums poked good-natured fun
at almost anything, including Mahabharata’s own
members and their bouts of delirium and inspiration.
The drawings contain a mixture of these and other
scenes from Prague life. Period documentation is
lacking for a more detailed decoding of the meaning
of these often brilliant drawings, which are typified
by exaggeration and métamorphosés of reality.
During the 1880s, the aforementioned Viktor
Oliva became a protagonist in communications be-
tween the art that came out of the bohemian milieu
and Prague’s public. He combined the usual bohe-
mian outlook of a young artist with an exceptional
talent as a draughtsman and designer, which had been
evident during his time in Munich where he, Alfons
Mucha and Luděk Marold were outstandingly gifted.
With his work for magazines, books and advertis-
ing posters he became a Prague version of these
“Czech Parisians”, and he also designed theatre sets
and costumes. His work on the décor of prominent
cafés and social venues from the mid-1880s to the
beginning of the twentieth Century is evidence of his
standing as a versatile creator of the visual backdrop
for fashionable middle-class Prague.11
In 1897 Oliva became the art editor of one of
the two main Czech-language illustrated magazines,
Zlatá Praha (Golden Prague), where he was able to
satisfy the requirements of his publishers and other
customers as well as readers’ expectations. Among
the public there came to be an acceptance of values
that had previously been opposed: liberally-minded
members of the Czech middle classes sought to
reconcile their nationalism and patriotism with inter-
national current affairs and fashion, which entailed
a certain acceptance of bohemia.
Viktor Oliva also produced a set of paintings for
the Café Slavia, which opened in 1884 just over the
the first art nouveau building in Prague. More recent art-his-
tory discussions of Oliva and his work currently only exist as
university theses. See NECHVÁTALOVÁ, M.: Viktor Oliva,
český malířá designér 90. let 19. století [Viktor Oliva, Czech Painter
and Designer of the 1890s]. [Diss.] Charles University, Faculty
of Arts. Praha 2012, in digital format; ŽIŽKOVÁ, T.: Viktor
Oliva. Ilustrace aplakáty [Viktor Oliva. Illustrations and Posters].
[Thes.] Charles University, Faculty of Arts. Praha 1979.
149
where a woman, evidendy of ill repute, has pushed
an old man to the ground and is snapping his cane.
The old man’s wig, a symbol of conservatism, is a
reference to a motif in paintings and drawings by art-
ists at the time of the bourgeois révolution of 1848.
Nevertheless this explicit aggression directed against
a particular element in Prague by bohemian artists
had no predecessor, and for a long time afterwards
no successor. While the Czech public was generally
sympathetic to young artists, seeing them as a hope
for the nation’s future, from the end of the 1880s
to the mid-1890s the views of young artists did not
take such radical form in public as in 1886, owing
to unusually complicated developments in art and
politics in the city at this time.
A crucial factor in the expansion of the new art
on the public scene in Prague was its connection
with Czech journalism and literatuře. The publish-
ers of newspapers, magazines and books, together
with journalists and writers, became the main chan-
nels for art in the Czech-speaking middle classes.
Related informai societies in Prague in the 1880s
and 1890s included a group of writers, artists and
theatre people who called themselves Mahabharata,
in what may hâve been an ironie reference to the
fragmentation of Czech magazines and writers into
rival factions. In addition the word was difficult to
pronounce and served as an analogy for incompré-
hensible drunken babbling. The group, which had
around eighty members, was based in a pub in the
brewery of an Augustinián monastery in Prague’s
Lesser Town.
Mahabharata was the leading information plat-
form for an alliance of artists, writers, musicians and
theatre people. As a lobby it helped artists from the
younger génération to become established in fash-
ionable Prague. Noted Mahabharata artists included
Mikoláš Aleš, the younger Viktor Oliva, and other
draughtsmen who worked as Illustrators for a satiri-
10 See PRAHL, R.: Kronika umění i města. Alba Mahabharaty a
„časopisu“ raného SVU Mánes [A Chronicle of Art and the
City. The Mahabharata Albums and the “Magazine” of the
Early Mánes Association]. In: Pražský sborník historický [The
Prague Historical Proceedings], 23, 1990, pp. 50-71.
11 Oliva'’s most ambitions large-scale work was the ornamenta-
tion of the façade of the Café Corso, sometimes considered
cal Prague magazine. Mahabharata’s commémorative
albums featured their drawings and are among the
most interesting visual documents of artistic Prague
at this time.10 The albums poked good-natured fun
at almost anything, including Mahabharata’s own
members and their bouts of delirium and inspiration.
The drawings contain a mixture of these and other
scenes from Prague life. Period documentation is
lacking for a more detailed decoding of the meaning
of these often brilliant drawings, which are typified
by exaggeration and métamorphosés of reality.
During the 1880s, the aforementioned Viktor
Oliva became a protagonist in communications be-
tween the art that came out of the bohemian milieu
and Prague’s public. He combined the usual bohe-
mian outlook of a young artist with an exceptional
talent as a draughtsman and designer, which had been
evident during his time in Munich where he, Alfons
Mucha and Luděk Marold were outstandingly gifted.
With his work for magazines, books and advertis-
ing posters he became a Prague version of these
“Czech Parisians”, and he also designed theatre sets
and costumes. His work on the décor of prominent
cafés and social venues from the mid-1880s to the
beginning of the twentieth Century is evidence of his
standing as a versatile creator of the visual backdrop
for fashionable middle-class Prague.11
In 1897 Oliva became the art editor of one of
the two main Czech-language illustrated magazines,
Zlatá Praha (Golden Prague), where he was able to
satisfy the requirements of his publishers and other
customers as well as readers’ expectations. Among
the public there came to be an acceptance of values
that had previously been opposed: liberally-minded
members of the Czech middle classes sought to
reconcile their nationalism and patriotism with inter-
national current affairs and fashion, which entailed
a certain acceptance of bohemia.
Viktor Oliva also produced a set of paintings for
the Café Slavia, which opened in 1884 just over the
the first art nouveau building in Prague. More recent art-his-
tory discussions of Oliva and his work currently only exist as
university theses. See NECHVÁTALOVÁ, M.: Viktor Oliva,
český malířá designér 90. let 19. století [Viktor Oliva, Czech Painter
and Designer of the 1890s]. [Diss.] Charles University, Faculty
of Arts. Praha 2012, in digital format; ŽIŽKOVÁ, T.: Viktor
Oliva. Ilustrace aplakáty [Viktor Oliva. Illustrations and Posters].
[Thes.] Charles University, Faculty of Arts. Praha 1979.
149