Václav Špála, 1885-1946
Reclining Nude, 1912
Oil on canvas
Václav Špála was one of the most prolific Czech Modernist painters of the twentieth century, yet he created unique and inimitable paintings taking their cues from Fauvism, Cubism and Abstraction. Reclining Nude belongs to the artist’s pre-Cubist period, where he adopted the morphology of Cubism in relation to space and shape. Unlike Špála’s previous work, the painting lacks an expressive touch. It has a calm effect, its solid compositional structure is underlined by the chosen colour palette, dominated by red, blue, and green, focusing on the object.
