Antonín Hudeček, 1872-1941
Nude in a Meadow, around 1897
Tempera on paper
Antonín Hudeček had dealt with the subject of figures in the landscape from 1891, when he left the Prague Academy of Arts to study in Munich and got to know Central European art more deeply. It was a style that was thematically focused precisely on the relationship between nature and the psychological state or mood of a person. Mood painting, with its roots in Realism and Impressionism, was close to him because in it he could use his sensitivity and feeling for capturing lyrical melancholy. The meditative tone of the composition Nude in Meadow was enhanced by the painter incorporating the anonymous figure of a naked young woman into a quiet scenery consisting of a green meadow with delicate flowers, trees and a river reflecting the sky. The symbolic theme of youth was in the forefront not only of Antonín Hudeček’s work, but also in that of his contemporaries, for example Jan Preisler or Max Švabinský.
