Malované portréty hudebních přátel Hugo Boettingera
| Pages | 65–80 |
|---|---|
| DOI | 10.37520/cnm.2023.009 |
| Keywords | Hugo Boettinger, Josef Suk, Czech Quartet, Music, Painting, Czech musical culture of the early 20th century |
| Citation | PAULOVÁ, Eva. Malované portréty hudebních přátel Hugo Boettingera. Journal of the National Museum. History Series. Prague: National Museum, 2023, 192(3-4), 65–80. DOI: https://doi.org/10.37520/cnm.2023.009. ISSN 1214-0627. Also available from: https://publikace.nm.cz/en/periodicals/journal-of-the-national-museum-history-series/192-3-4/malovane-portrety-hudebnich-pratel-hugo-boettingera |
Painted portraits of Hugo Boettinger’s musical friends
The painter, cartoonist and caricaturist Hugo Boettinger (1880–1934) had a deep friendship with Josef Suk and the members of the Czech Quartet, Václav Talich, Václav Štěpán and other musicians of the early 20th century. His love of music accompanied him from childhood and he and his wife hosted an interesting music salon in his apartment, and later his house. In addition to a number of well-known drawings, which he himself preferred to describe as cheerful rather than caricatures, he also painted many large-scale oil paintings of musicians as a renowned portraitist. They had a specific position in his portrait painting and were preceded by many studies, drawings and discussions with friends. They were not usually created as commissioned portraits, but from the painter’s own wishes, often as gifts. Respect and admiration for the violinist František Ondříček was one of the first impulses to paint. In the artist‘s estate we can find a number of drawings and studies for the preparation of two of his seminal group portraits – The Czech Quartet and the painting The Artist and His Friends. Not all of the paintings are known or publicly available today, some of them are even documented only by photographs, unfortunately in black and white. This article presents a biography of the artist, who will celebrate the one hundred and tenth anniversary of his death at the end of 2024, catalogues these paintings and traces their genesis in surviving studies, correspondence and other sources.
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