oil on canvas
47 x 34.8 cm
signed and dated upper right: B. KUBISTA 1913.
verso inscription by the artist: Zatisi Stilleben 34.8 x 47 and labels from Galerie Nationale Prague and Ustredni svaz cs. vytvarnych umelcu (Central Union of Czechoslovak Visual Artists)

No Still Life representing Czech modernist art of such high quality has ever been auctioned in the modern history of the Czech Republic.
The painting is an exceptional icon of Czech Cubism from its heyday.
In 1913, the peak year of Kubista‘s Cubist period, the artist painted only five oil paintings using the Cubist technique, four of which are held in the collections of state galleries and foundations.
The work is in excellent original condition without any restoration work.

Provenance:
– Bohumil Kubista collection
– purchased by the grandfather of the current owner (the painting has been in the family for over a hundred years)

Exhibited:
– Le Cubisme à Prague, Biron Castle, Dordogne, 6. 7.–15. 9. 1991, Museum of Fine Arts, Nancy, 25. 10.–1. 12. 1991, reproduced in catalogue on p. 121 under no. 69
– Bohumil Kubista 1884–1918, National Gallery in Prague, Wallenstein Riding Hall, 25. 2.–30. 5. 1993, reproduced in catalogue under no. 81
– Bohumil Kubista and Czech Art 1905–2013, Radiant Crystal, Intersections, Clashes, Overlaps, House of Art, Jureckova 9, Ostrava, 3. 10. 2014–4. 1. 2015

Publicated:
– Le Cubisme à Prague, collective authorship, published by Imprimerie Jacques London in Paris in 1991, reproduced on p. 121 under no. 69
– Bohumil Kubista, Mahulena Neslehova, published by National Gallery in cooperation with the Odeon publishing house in Prague in 1993, reproduced on p. 165 under no. 140
– Bohumil Kubista 1884– 1918, Mahulena Neslehova, published by the National Gallery in Prague by Empora Publishing House in 1993, reproduced under no. 81
– Bohumil Kubista – Shining Crystal, Karel Srp, Gabriela Pelikanova and Zuzana Novotna, published by Arbor vitae and the Gallery of Fine Arts in Ostrava in 2014, reproduced on p. 336 under no. 200
– Bohumil Kubista and Europe, Marie Rakusanova and team, published by – Karolinum Press, Charles University in 2020, reproduced on p. 301

Consulted with Dr Mahulena Neslehova, author of exhibitions of the painter and the catalogue of works by Bohumil Kubista. “The consistent method of formal disaggregation applied across the entire pictorial plane is governed by the principles of French Objectivist Cubism: the relativity of space, the connection between ideas expressed through the discontinuity of phenomena, and the reconstruction of time through a series of parallel durations. Colours and light are also created, rather than passively reproduced from observed reality. In this still life, Kubista succeeded in creating analytical symbols suitable for expressing synthetic concepts. Without realizing it, he concluded his most artistically and ideologically significant creative period, lasting almost two and a half years, saturated with misery and despair.“ (Mahulena Neslehova: Bohumil Kubista, Prague, 1984, p. 162)

Further consulted with Dr Irena Zantovska Murray HonFRIBA, Professor Jaromir Zemina, Dr Jiri Machalicky and Vladimir Lekes.
Authenticity certificate enclosed.