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Antonín Machek (31 October 1775,
Podlažice Chrast () is a town in Chrudim District in the Pardubice Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 3,200 inhabitants. The historic centre with the castle complex is well preserved and is protected as an Cultural monument (Czech Republic)#Monumen ...
– 18 November 1844,
Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...
) was a Czech painter in the Classical and Biedermeier styles. He was best known for his portraits.


Biography

He was born into a family of tenant farmers. His father also worked as a tailor and, during the summers, was engaged as a musician at the nearby residence of Bishop Jan Leopold Hay, but died in 1785, when Antonín was ten. His mother was too ill to care for him, so the local
canon Canon or Canons may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Canon (fiction), the material accepted as officially written by an author or an ascribed author * Literary canon, an accepted body of works considered as high culture ** Western canon, th ...
presented him to Bishop Hay, who took him in and apprenticed him to the court painter Wenzel Zitta (?-?), who was his instructor for two years. He travelled with the Bishop to Prague in 1790 and 1792 for the coronations of Leopold II and Francis I as the Kings of Bohemia. After the second visit, he remained there to study with Zitta's teacher, Wenzel Bluma (?-1794). The Bishop died shortly after Bluma, so he became a journeyman attached to the
fresco Fresco ( or frescoes) is a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly laid ("wet") lime plaster. Water is used as the vehicle for the dry-powder pigment to merge with the plaster, and with the setting of the plaster, the painting become ...
painter and decorator Antonín Tuvora (1747-1807) and spent his evenings studying drawing with Ludvík Kohl. In 1796, he won an award at a contest sponsored by the "Society of Patriotic Friends of the Arts". After that, the new bishop, Maria Thaddäus von Trautmannsdorff, entrusted him with decorating the chapel of the castle in Chrast. When his mother died in 1798, he sold the family home, moved to Vienna and enrolled at the Academy of Fine Arts. He ran out of money in 1801 and returned to Bohemia, settling in
Hradec Králové Hradec Králové (; ) is a city of the Czech Republic. It has about 94,000 inhabitants. It is the capital of the Hradec Králové Region. The historic centre of Hradec Králové is well preserved and is protected as an Cultural monument (Czech R ...
and working as a portrait painter. A year later, he decided to be an itinerant artist, travelling through northern Austria and setting up portrait shops in
Linz Linz (Pronunciation: , ; ) is the capital of Upper Austria and List of cities and towns in Austria, third-largest city in Austria. Located on the river Danube, the city is in the far north of Austria, south of the border with the Czech Repub ...
and
Steyr Steyr (; ) is a statutory city (Austria), statutory city, located in the Austrian federal state of Upper Austria. It is the administrative capital, though not part of Steyr-Land District. Steyr is Austria's 12th most populated town and the 3rd lar ...
. In 1813, he came to a stop in Prague, where he got married and became involved in Czech patriotic circles. He also maintained connections with the Academy of Fine Arts there, especially with Professors František Tkadlík and Joseph Bergler, who taught him
lithography Lithography () is a planographic method of printing originally based on the miscibility, immiscibility of oil and water. The printing is from a stone (lithographic limestone) or a metal plate with a smooth surface. It was invented in 1796 by ...
and other graphic techniques. In 1835, he was one of those who formally protested the overwhelmingly German content of courses at the academy and the alleged incompetence of its director.Brief biography
@ the Galerie Výtvarného Umění v Ostravĕ.
In all, he created over 300 portraits, many of which were made into lithographs by his student, František Šír (1804-1864).


References


Further reading

* Luděk Novák, ''Antonín Machek''. Praha Nakladatelství ČSAV, 1962. * Karel Boromejsky Madl, ''Antonin Machek, malíř podobizen'' (portrait painter), Stenc, 1929


External links


ArtNet: More works by Machek"Antonín Machek: Podobizna sochaře Josefa Malinského"
(Portrait of the sculptor Josef Malínský) A video from
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*
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Commemorative stamp, 1995, 14Kč {{DEFAULTSORT:Machek, Antonin 1775 births 1844 deaths 19th-century Czech painters Painters from the Austrian Empire Czech male painters Neoclassical painters Czech portrait painters People from Chrast 19th-century Czech male artists 18th-century painters from Bohemia 18th-century male artists