oil on canvas
73 x 98 cm
signed and dated lower left: Emil Filla 30

Provenance:
– collection of the writer, publicist, playwright, painter, scenographer, cartoonist, translator, diplomat, university professor and traveller Adolf Hoffmeister (1902–1973); Hoffmeister was a founding member of Devetsil, chairman of the Czechoslovak Union of Visual Artists, member of AICA, represented Czechoslovakia at UNESCO, PEN Club and other international organisations; he acquired the work directly from or immediately after an exhibition at the Brno House of Art in 1932
– collection of the famous collector Professor Jaroslav Borovicka, who acquired the work from Adolf Hoffmeister in the 1950s
– confiscated in 1959 by the Czechoslovak state and placed in the permanent exhibition of the National Gallery in Prague (ref. no. O8113); the painting was kept in the office of the then Director General of the National Gallery in Prague, Dr Jiri Kotalik, until 1982
– from 1983 to 1991 the work was displayed in the permanent exhibition of the Emil Filla Memorial in Chropyne Chateau
– 1992 returned by the National Gallery in Prague to Jaroslav Borovicka in the framework of non-judicial restitution
– significant private collection

Exhibited:
– Jubilee Exhibition of Emil Filla's Works, Manes Prague (May 1932), catalogue number 168
– Collective Exhibition of Paintings Organized by the Group of Visual Artists, House of Art Brno (October 1932), catalogue number 60
– Vincenc Kramar Gallery, Prague (07. 01.–18. 02. 1968), catalogue number 26
– Czech Painting of the 20 th Century from the Collections of the National Gallery in Prague, 1973, catalogue number 223
– Czech Modern Painting, Helsinki, 1983
– Permanent exhibition of the Emil Filla Memorial, Chropyne Chateau (1983–1991)

Publicated:
– Frantisek Venera, The Work of Emil Filla, Brno 1936, reproduced on page LXXI

Consulted by Dr Frantisek Krejci Jr. (great-nephew and copyright holder of the painter).
"Certificate of Origin" by Professor Jaroslav Borovicka, dated 30. 03. 2006, enclosed.
Expertise by Professor Jaromir Zemina dated 06. 08. 2006, enclosed.
Expertise by Professor Tomas Vlcek from 09. 10. 2014, enclosed.
Expertise by Dr Karel Miller dated 18. 07. 2001, enclosed.
Further consulted with Dr Irena Zantovska Murray HonFRIBA, Professor Jaromir Zemina, Dr Jiri Machalicky and Vladimir Lekes.

A masterpiece by Emil Filla of extraordinary value and significance for the history of Czech modern art.

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