Augustin Němejc (15 March 1861,

Nepomuk Nepomuk (; ) is a town in Plzeň-South District in the Plzeň Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 3,600 inhabitants. It is known as the birthplace of Saint John of Nepomuk, who was born here around 1340. Administrative division Nepomuk ...

– 16 August 1938,

Plzeň Plzeň (), also known in English and German as Pilsen (), is a city in the Czech Republic. It is the Statutory city (Czech Republic), fourth most populous city in the Czech Republic with about 188,000 inhabitants. It is located about west of P ...

) was a Czech painter, known for his portrayals of village life and costumes from the

Plzeň Region Plzeň Region or Plzeňský Region (also known as Pilsen Region; ) is an Regions of the Czech Republic, administrative unit () of the Czech Republic, located in the western part of the historical land of Bohemia and named after the capital, Plz ...

Biography

Němejc was born in Nepomuk in 1861, son of a butcher and brewer. In 1875, he was apprenticed to a watchmaker. After becoming a journeyman, he travelled extensively to improve his skills. This included a stay in Italy, where visits to art galleries inspired him to become a painter instead. With the patronage of a noblewoman, , he began taking lessons from František Sequens and Maximilian Pirner at the Academy of Fine Arts, Prague, continued his studies at the

Academy of Fine Arts, Munich The Academy of Fine Arts, Munich (, also known as Munich Academy) is one of the oldest and most significant art academies in Germany. It is located in the Maxvorstadt district of Munich, in Bavaria, Germany. In the second half of the 19th centur ...

with Alexander von Wagner, then worked as a painter and art teacher in Plzeň. His painting "Hopeless Love" won a major award at the General Land Centennial Exhibition in 1891. It also earned him a one-year scholarship to study in Paris where he worked with Vojtěch Hynais, who had created the curtain for the Prague National Theater. In 1900, as a result of this experience, he was commissioned to create a curtain for the new Josef Kajetán Tyl Theatre. At about the same time, he painted

lunette A lunette (French ''lunette'', 'little moon') is a crescent- or half-moon–shaped or semi-circular architectural space or feature, variously filled with sculpture, painted, glazed, filled with recessed masonry, or void. A lunette may also be ...

s at the recently completed . He also created monumental paintings for the Higher Economic School, now a satellite institute of

Charles University Charles University (CUNI; , UK; ; ), or historically as the University of Prague (), is the largest university in the Czech Republic. It is one of the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, oldest universities in the world in conti ...

. From 1907 to 1925, he was a teacher at the girls'

lyceum The lyceum is a category of educational institution defined within the education system of many countries, mainly in Europe. The definition varies among countries; usually it is a type of secondary school. Basic science and some introduction to ...

. He is best known as a regionalist, focusing on costumes and village life from the surrounding areas. A museum has been opened at his family home in Nepomuk and, on the 150th anniversary of his birth in 2011, a memorial plaque was placed at his home in Plzeň.

Selected paintings

File:Nemejc-Hopeless.jpg, Hopeless Love File:Augustin Němejc - Stříhání ovcí.jpg, Sheep Shearing Image:Augustin Němejc - Litičanka u plotu.jpg, At the Fence Image:Augustin Němejc - Žíznivý návštěvník.jpg, Thirsty Visitor

References

External links

More works by Němejc
@ the Augustin Němejc website
"Malíř Augustin Němejc bude mít v rodném domě museum"
(birthplace museum) @ the Plzeň website {{DEFAULTSORT:Nemejc, Augustin 1861 births 1938 deaths 20th-century Czech painters Genre painters Folk artists Czech portrait painters People from Plzeň-South District 19th-century Czech painters Czech male painters 19th-century Czech male artists 20th-century Czech male artists Painters from Austria-Hungary

Biography

Selected paintings

References

Further reading

External links