František Ženíšek (25 May 1849 – 15 November 1916) was a Czech painter. He was part of the "" (Generation of the National Theater), a large group of artists with nationalistic sympathies.

Early life

Ženíšek was born in

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 ...

into a family of merchants and displayed an affinity for art at an early age. His father nervously agreed to let him pursue his interests and allowed him to take lessons from Karel Javůrek whilst he was still in school. From 1863 to 1865, he was at 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 ...

, studying with Eduard von Engerth. After a brief stay in Vienna, assisting Engerth with work at the State Opera, he was back at the Academy in Prague, working with Jan Swerts and the history painter

Josef Matyáš Trenkwald Josef Matyáš Trenkwald (also known as Joseph Matthias Trenkwald, ; 13 March 1824 — 28 July 1897) was a Czech-Austrian painter. He was best known for his religious and historical paintings. Biography Josef Matyáš Trenkwald was born on 13 ...

Career

Ženíšek received his first major commission in 1875, painting murals at the city hall in

Courtrai Kortrijk ( , ; or ''Kortrik''; ), sometimes known in English as Courtrai or Courtray ( ), is a Belgian city and municipality in the Flemish province of West Flanders. With its 80,000 inhabitants (2024) Kortrijk is the capital and largest cit ...

, Belgium. Whilst on a study tour to Paris, he gained an important friend and supporter in Josef Šebestián Daubek, a well-known patron of the arts, who requested him to decorate his home in Liteň. Ženíšek later accompanied Daubek on his honeymoon to the Netherlands, and painted a portrait of the new couple. Soon after returning from Paris, Ženíšek and

Mikoláš Aleš Mikoláš Aleš (18 November 1852 – 10 July 1913) was a Czech painter. Aleš is estimated to have had over 5,000 published pictures; he painted for everything from magazines to playing cards to textbooks. His paintings were not publicized to ...

won a competition to decorate the foyer of the National Theater with historic and allegorical designs. Ženíšek went on to decorate the auditorium ceiling and design a curtain, although the curtain was destroyed by a fire in 1881. He also painted windows at the church in

Karlín Karlín () is a cadastral area of Prague, part of Prague 8 municipal district, formerly an independent town (which became part of Prague in 1922). It is bordered by the river Vltava and Holešovice to the north, Vítkov hill and Žižkov to t ...

and

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

National Museum A national museum can be a museum maintained and funded by a national government. In many countries it denotes a museum run by the central government, while other museums are run by regional or local governments. In the United States, most nati ...

as well as over 80 portraits. From 1885 to 1896, he was a professor at the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design, where his assistant was Jakub Schikaneder. Then, from 1896 to 1915, he was a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts, where his students included Jaroslav Špillar and Jan Preisler. In 1898, he was one of the founders of "" (Union of Fine Artists), in an effort to strengthen the Czech nationalist viewpoint in the arts. Ženíšek died on 15 November 1916, in Prague.

Personal life

His son, František (1877–1935) was also a painter of some note.

Selected paintings

File:Ženíšek.portreto.de.Descartes.jpg, Portrait of

René Descartes René Descartes ( , ; ; 31 March 1596 – 11 February 1650) was a French philosopher, scientist, and mathematician, widely considered a seminal figure in the emergence of modern philosophy and Modern science, science. Mathematics was paramou ...

, after

Frans Hals Frans Hals the Elder (, ; ; – 26 August 1666) was a Dutch Golden Age painter. He lived and worked in Haarlem, a city in which the local authority of the day frowned on religious painting in places of worship but citizens liked to decorate thei ...

File:Ženíšek.opona.ND.jpg, Study for the curtain in the National Theatre File:Ženíšek.Oldřich.a.Božena.jpg, '' Oldřich and

Božena Božena is a feminine given name. Notable people with the name include: * Božena (Křesinová), Bohemian duchess * Božena of Bohemia, Bohemian princess and Margravine of Brandenburg * Božena Angelova, Slovenian violinist * Božena Dobešová, ...

'' File:Josef Šebestián Daubek.jpg, Portrait of Josef Daubek

References

External links

Oldřich and Božena
a video from

Czech Television Czech Television ( ; abbreviation: ČT) is a public television broadcaster in the Czech Republic, broadcasting six channels. Established after breakup of Czechoslovakia in 1992, it is the successor to Czechoslovak Television founded in 1953. H ...

* Tony Ozuna, "Visual historian of a nation" from the

Prague Post ''The Prague Post'' was an English language newspaper covering the Czech Republic and Central and Eastern Europe which published its first weekly issue on October 1, 1991. It published a printed edition weekly until July 2013, when it dropped the ...