Alfréd Justitz (19 July 1879 in

Nová Cerekev Nová Cerekev () is a market town in Pelhřimov District in the Vysočina Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 1,200 inhabitants. Administrative division Nová Cerekev consists of seven municipal parts (in brackets population according to t ...

– 9 February 1934 in

Bratislava Bratislava (German: ''Pressburg'', Hungarian: ''Pozsony'') is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the Slovakia, Slovak Republic and the fourth largest of all List of cities and towns on the river Danube, cities on the river Danube. ...

) was a Czech

Modernist Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...

painter and illustrator.

Biography

He was one of three sons born into a Jewish family; their father was a doctor and their mother a homemaker.Brief biography
@ the Jewish Museum in Prague. His first contact with art came in

Jihlava Jihlava (; ) is a city in the Czech Republic. It has about 55,000 inhabitants. Jihlava is the capital of the Vysočina Region, situated on the Jihlava (river), Jihlava River on the historical border between Moravia and Bohemia. Historically, Jihla ...

, where he met the aspiring painter, Roman Havelka, who was two years his senior. As a result, Justitz decided to pursue a creative career and began by studying architecture at the

Czech Technical University in Prague Czech Technical University in Prague (CTU) () is one of the largest universities in the Czech Republic with 8 faculties, and is one of the oldest institutes of technology in Central Europe. It is also the oldest non-military technical universi ...

with Professor

Jan Kotěra Jan Kotěra (18 December 1871 – 17 April 1923) was a Czech architect, artist and interior designer, and one of the key figures of modern architecture in Bohemia. Biography Kotěra was born in Brno, the largest city in Moravia, to a Czech fath ...

. He transferred to the

Academy of Fine Arts The following is a list of notable art schools. Accredited non-profit art and design colleges * Adelaide Central School of Art * Alberta College of Art and Design * Art Academy of Cincinnati * Art Center College of Design * The Art Institute ...

, where he studied with Maximilian Pirner and Franz Thiele. After that, he worked with Ludwig Schmid-Reutte in

Karlsruhe Karlsruhe ( ; ; ; South Franconian German, South Franconian: ''Kallsruh'') is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, third-largest city of the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, after its capital Stuttgart a ...

and

Wilhelm Trübner Wilhelm Trübner (February 3, 1851 – December 21, 1917) was a German Realism (visual arts), realist Painting, painter of the circle of Wilhelm Leibl. Biography Trübner was born in Heidelberg. He was the third son of a silver- and goldsmit ...

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

.Curriculum vitae and more paintings
@ the České muzeum výtvarných umění. In 1910, he visited Paris, where he was influenced by the works of

Paul Cézanne Paul Cézanne ( , , ; ; ; 19 January 1839 – 22 October 1906) was a French Post-Impressionism, Post-Impressionist painter whose work introduced new modes of representation, influenced avant-garde artistic movements of the early 20th century a ...

and

Honoré Daumier Honoré-Victorin Daumier (; February 26, 1808 – February 10 or 11, 1879) was a French painter, sculptor, and printmaker, whose many works offer commentary on the social and political life in France, from the July Revolution, Revolution of 1830 ...

. From 1918 to 1924, he exhibited with ''"Tvrdošíjní"'', a group of mostly young, modern artists. Later, he would create posters for galleries and stores. In 1927, he produced illustrations for the Czech edition of ''

Notre-Dame de Paris Notre-Dame de Paris ( ; meaning "Cathedral of Our Lady of Paris"), often referred to simply as Notre-Dame, is a Medieval architecture, medieval Catholic cathedral on the Île de la Cité (an island in the River Seine), in the 4th arrondissemen ...

'' by

Victor Hugo Victor-Marie Hugo, vicomte Hugo (; 26 February 1802 – 22 May 1885) was a French Romanticism, Romantic author, poet, essayist, playwright, journalist, human rights activist and politician. His most famous works are the novels ''The Hunchbac ...

. The following year, he joined the

Mánes Union of Fine Arts The Mánes Association of Fine Artists ( or ''S.V.U.''; commonly abbreviated as ''Manes'') was an artists' association and exhibition society founded in 1887 in Prague and named after painter Josef Mánes. The Manes was significant for its in ...

. In addition to painting, Justitz loved dogs and was an enthusiastic promoter and breeder of boxers. He became a trustee of the "ČeskoMoravská Kynologická Unie" (a kennel club), where he was put in charge of maintaining the breeding records. He was also an active

Freemason Freemasonry (sometimes spelled Free-Masonry) consists of fraternal groups that trace their origins to the medieval guilds of stonemasons. Freemasonry is the oldest secular fraternity in the world and among the oldest still-existing organizati ...

of the lodge ''"Sibi et Posteris"'' in Prague. He died at a hospital in Bratislava, after a long illness. His ashes were returned to his hometown and placed in an urn at the Jewish cemetery. The Masonic Lodge provided support for his widow Anna, but she never recovered from his death. She committed suicide by poisoning not long after the

German Occupation German-occupied Europe, or Nazi-occupied Europe, refers to the sovereign countries of Europe which were wholly or partly militarily occupied and civil-occupied, including puppet states, by the (armed forces) and the government of Nazi Germany at ...

in 1939, when the threat of the Nazis to Jews was obvious.

Selected paintings

File:Justitz-Child.jpg, Portrait of a Child File:Justitz-Samaritan.jpg, The

Good Samaritan In most contexts, the concept of good denotes the conduct that should be preferred when posed with a choice between possible actions. Good is generally considered to be the opposite of evil. The specific meaning and etymology of the term and its ...

File:Justitz-House.jpg, The Pink House File:Justitz-Bathsheba.jpg,

Bathsheba Bathsheba (; , ) was an Kings of Israel and Judah, Israelite queen consort. According to the Hebrew Bible, she was the wife of Uriah the Hittite and later of David, with whom she had all of her five children. Her status as the mother of Solomon ...

References

External links

ArtNet: More paintings by Justitz

Web umenia: artworks by Alfréd Justitz in Czech and Slovak galleries
{{DEFAULTSORT:Justitz, Alfred 1879 births 1934 deaths People from Nová Cerekev Jews from Bohemia Czech Jews Jewish painters Czech cubist artists Czech poster artists 20th-century Czech illustrators Dog breeders 20th-century Czech painters Czech male painters 20th-century Czech male artists

Biography

Selected paintings

References

Further reading

External links