Description
The subject of the painting is a figurative composition of the allegory of Hunting. The work is the work of a popular author of the late 19th century, a painter of everyday life in old Prague, Vojtěch Bartoňek (March 28, 1859 Prague – August 25, 1908 Prague). It was created in 1888 as part of a separate order for the decoration of the dining room of the apartment of the chairman of the Chamber of Commerce and Trades, iron wholesaler, politician and patron Bohumil Bondy (1832 – 1907) in the Černá růže palace at Na Příkopě 12. These magnificent and currently listed interiors were renovated in the Neo-Renaissance style by architect Josef Fanta in 1884 – 1888 and can be seen when visiting the representative business premises of the Moser company, which has been based on the ground floor of the building since 1925, from where it expanded, among other things, to the original dining room on the first floor in 1934, when the Bondy family moved out.
In addition to this work, there were paintings of Vintage, Ploughing, Harvesting, Fishing and Source. Všechno of them were presented to the public in the magazine Zlatá Praha year. VI, 1888 – 1889.
Vojtěch Bartoněk
Grandson of porcelain painter František Rebec. He was a student of the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague (1873 – 1889) – after a three-year elementary course with Emanuele Roma, he trained at the Antique School of Antonín Lhota and then gradually in the studios of František Sequens and Maxmilián Perner. After graduating, he studied privately in Paris for another year. Initially, he dealt with historical and allegorical scenes. He soon abandoned the academic style of painting and switched to depicting genre scenes, in which he locally captured the atmosphere of Prague streets, markets, parks and courtyards, and later came to socially critical themes. In addition to producing successfully sold hanging paintings, he devoted himself to realizations in architecture (murals, mosaics) and restoration work. He illustrated Božena Němcová’s Pohorská veszéle and is known to have created several portraits. Since his studies, he regularly participated in exhibitions of the Krasoumná jednota, later Mánes and the Jednota umělců výtvarných. His works were often reproduced in Světozor and Zlatá Praže.
