Rudolf Kundera (1911-2005) Artist's Workshop

An original composition and layout, a drawing always sure and of high quality for this surprising oil on canvas by the Czech painter but adopted from Marseille Rudolf Kundera. The work is made in oil on cardboard, it is offered in a modern American box type frame in natural oak which measures 67.5 cm by 73.5 cm, and 62.5 cm by 69 cm for the painting alone . It represents the interior of the workshop with various personal objects of the artist, furniture, guitar, vase, light wall lamp, different paintings, and on the right, a famous creation of the painter, the portrait of the singer Barbara. Additional originality, it is signed on an exhibition poster stuck on the cabinet. Difficult to photograph because of the reflections, the work is much more beautiful in reality than in photos. An exceptional painting by this great artist who is booming on the current art market.

It was on the initiative of Alfons Mucha that he left, in 1930, to study painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague, where he obtained his diploma in 1936. He then obtained a scholarship to Rome, where he created a whole series of paintings for churches, as well as landscapes and portraits. He acquired significant notoriety and notably became the friend of Bohuslav Martinů. At the start of the Second World War, he took refuge in Paris. He became friends with French people, including the writer Claude Mauriac and the poet Paul Valéry. To escape the occupation he left Paris, via Nantes and Toulouse he reached the South of France. He will be received by Countess Lily Pastré in Marseille, which hosts many artists. A realistic painter, he is especially renowned as a colorist, with an assertive personality. He painted landscapes of Provence, folk scenes from Moravia, paintings inspired by the circus, and numerous portraits of personalities of his time. He has exhibited in several European countries and the United States. His paintings are in two museums in Marseille: the Cantini Museum and the Museum of Fine Arts.