Lot 184

Ota Janeček (1919 - 1996) FOOTPRINTS

Ota Janeček's original illustrations probably date from the period when he was working on the Poetic Almanac published in 1954. This was the period when he created his first illustrations in collaboration with the SNDK publishing house, which heralded broader collaboration with the medium of book illustration. Despite the unique creative character of Ota Janeček, his work can be linked to Czech artists such as Jiří Trnka for his poetic landscape sensibility, or Zdeněk Seydl and František Tichý. However, we can also find connections to older artists such as Pieter Bruegel the Elder. He was particularly attracted to the winter motifs of this representative of 16th-century Dutch painting, with their melancholic lyricism of bare trees, whose rich branches stand out strikingly against the white background of the snow-covered landscape. The imaginative energy, executed with skillful drawing, often stands on the intertwining of reality and dream, precise natural detail with the cosmic whole of the earthly world in a unique unity between man and the natural world, which Janeček's illustrations radiate. The work comes from the author's estate from his Prague studio at Bubenská 1376/39.