Czech Painter František Kupka 1871 Opočno – 1957 Puteaux- France "woman With A Hat"

Czech Painter František Kupka 1871 Opočno – 1957 Puteaux- France “Woman With a  Hat”
Combined technique on paper
Size: 27 x 14 cm
Signed Lower right Kupka
Framed under glass


František Kupka was a Czech painter, graphic artist and illustrator, one of the founders of modern abstract painting. His relationship with music contributed to the creation and implementation of another new artistic movement – ​​Orphism, i.e. a movement that brought painting closer to other arts (music, poetry). He lived most of his life in France.

With his work, he has indelibly written himself into the history of Czech and world art. From a commercial point of view, he is also one of the most expensive Czech artists; his work Conception/Danae (Conception) was auctioned in April 2024 for CZK 126,500,000 (Adolf Loos Apartment and Gallery auction house, April 21, 2024), thus becoming the most expensive work of all time auctioned in the Czech Republic. At the same time, it became a new record for a painter in the Czech Republic, several of his other paintings were sold for amounts exceeding 60 million crowns, the abstract painting Divertimento II for 90 million crowns.[5] The painting Tryskání II was auctioned at Sotheby's in London in March 2021 for 196 million crowns (with an auction premium of 231 million), making it the most expensive painting by a Czech artist ever auctioned.

František Kupka was born as the eldest of five children in the family of a notary public in Opočno. He spent his youth in Dobruška pod Orlické hory, where he learned the saddlery trade, but even then he was painting signboards and pictures of saints. He showed great talent for painting, and therefore, at the intercession of a family friend, he was not forced to devote himself to his craft and was sent first to a craft school in Jaroměř (1886) and then to the Prague Academy (1887). Here he studied in the studio for historical and religious painting as a student of Professor František Sequens until his graduation in 1892, when he left for Vienna. He remained at the Academy in Vienna until 1895, when he was sent to Paris on a scholarship, traveling there by detour through northern Europe. During his studies at the École des Beaux-Arts, he made a living by painting posters, teaching religion and even acting as a spiritualist medium (it is interesting that Kupka was a supporter of theosophy, Eastern philosophies and mysticism in general).