Lot 57

Emil Orlik (1870 - 1932) DANCER MACARA I.

Emil Orlik loved cabarets and dancers. He was regarded as an outstanding draftsman and graphic artist. At the urging of V. Bode, he became a professor at the Prague School of Applied Arts in 1905. He honed his artistic techniques, learning lithography in Prague, color woodcut in Munich, and pastel in 1898. In 1900, he traveled to Japan, where he studied traditional Japanese printing techniques in the workshops of woodcut artists and printers. He also visited China, Egypt, North America, the Netherlands, France, and Switzerland. In the spirit of Berlin and Vienna Art Nouveau, he created a drawing of the pantomime dancer Macara and, in 1909, developed the drawing further into an oil painting on canvas. Verso of exhibition labels: 1905 Kunstaustellung Werteheim, Berlin, no. 1492, and Berliner Secession 1909, no. 1522. Restitution by SÚPP – Ministry of Culture.