Madonna / New Building

This double-sided painting represents a unique phenomenon in Čapek’s oeuvre, capturing the artist’s approach during a key stage of the Czech avant-garde. The use of both sides of the canvas not only reflects a practical reason concerning economy with materials, but also the artist’s need to experiment with different creative approaches on a single medium.

Dating from 1913 and covered with the motif of a newly built, but unfinished building, the verso of the canvas reflects Čapek’s keen interest in the disintegrative aspect of Cubism; he uses refracted shapes for the motif of a new housing development, including scaffolding and structural elements. This is the rejected version of the more famous and frequently exhibited painting New Building (oil on canvas, 44 × 29 cm, 1913, National Gallery in Prague, inv. no. O 3773). The choice of subject matter reflects the obsession with technical progress at the time, which was characteristic of the Tvrdošíjní (Obstinate) generation, with Cubist fragmentation serving as an image of changing urban development. The year 1913 marked the pinnacle of Čapek’s experiments with Cubism, as the artist worked intensively with the fragmentation of forms and spatial deconstruction under the influence of examples from Paris.

Dating from 1916, Madonna represents an entirely different artistic language. Čapek had outgrown his early inspiration drawn from primitive art and found his authentic style in the spirit of the Tvrdošínjí. Thematically related to the images of begging women and sorrowful mothers that the painter produced during these years, the figure of a woman and a child locked in an intimate embrace radiates a deep spirituality and meditative calm around the sanctity of motherhood. In the context of the hardships of World War II, the radiant aura of the mother became a symbol of hope and light in a time of darkness. The rounded shapes and gentle shading evoke a melancholy spirituality, which can recall the work of Jan Zrzavý in places, but remains faithful to the artist’s personal sensibility. The introversion of the composition and central positioning of the figurative group creates a sense of space, where quiet dialogue plays out between mother and child. A preparatory sketch for the work has survived in Čapek’s estate (P. Pečinková: Pracoval jsem mnoho, Soupis výtvarného díla Josefa Čapka, díl první: Kresba, Humpolec: 2019, cat. no. I/845).

The colouration, featuring muted ochre, grey and earth tones on both sides, corresponds to Čapek’s preference at the time for the monochromatic schema typical of Czech Cubism, which he later rejected in favour of a multicoloured play of contrasts. The tension between the Constructivist dynamism of New Building and the meditative quiet of Madonna in a single work documents the breadth of the artist’s searching between Cubism and spiritual figurative painting. The work is thus a rare testimony to Čapek’s transition from analytic Cubism towards a personal artistic language; in subsequent years, this would lead him to naïvism and an authentic testimony to the “humblest art,” as he formulated it in his book of the same name, published in 1920. The painting was apparently presented, or should have been presented, at the exhibition The Work of Josef Čapek: paintings, drawings and prints, theatre, Umělecká beseda, Slovanský ostrov, Prague, 22 September – 31 October 1946, cat. no. 61 in the list of works (Woman with Child). The item on the list was replaced in the final exhibition catalogue, however, by the painting Prostitute (cat. no. 60a). The painting comes from the collection of the famous Czech theatre manager, director, dramaturge, and actor Jan Škoda, son-in-law of S. K. Neumman. Assessed in consultation with Prof. J. Zemina and PhDr. R. Michalová, Ph.D. The expert opinion of PhDr. P. Pečinková, CSc. is attached: “[...] The listed work is thematically linked to several Čapek oils and drawings featuring the motif of a mother holding a child in her arms [...]. It is part of a set of nostalgic social motifs that reflect the traumas of World War I. It follows on from many significant oils and drawings on the theme of maternity created during the pre-war period. [...].”