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Oil on canvas mounted to cardboard. Signed lower left: “VHynais”. According to the expert opinion prepared by PhDr. Nadezda Blazicková-Horová, “Typical of its genre, At the Confessional is a very appealing work by Vojtech Hynais that likely dates from the 1890s. Hynais worked as a portrait artist and painter of figurative scenes in the suggestive rendition of salon naturalism and luminism, in a painterly concept based on the colorful expression of light in the painting and transformations in local colors. The painterly virtuosity, verismo naturalism, and color execution of two beautiful women kneeling before the confessional in a soft, watercolor-like tone against a blue background, is an excellent example of Hynais’ luminism understood in the limits of the late 19th century. The scene is also interesting for its taunting content: one of the young woman is kissing the hand of the rotund, roguishly smiling confessor. The subject is a departure from Hynais’ allegorical, religious or historical subjects that are predominant in his work. On clear display in At the Confessional are Hynais’ typical formal perfection and cultivation, which were unparalleled on the Czech art scene, as well as his excellent draftsmanship.”