Children with Kite

The scene of autumnal fun in Children with Kite is an example of the brilliant painting of Josef Čapek, in which he fully elaborated his characteristic poetic depiction of the world of children. Two children fly a paper kite, to which the author has assigned a simplistic, smiling face that soars in swirling clouds above the stylised roofs of houses. The entire scene is designed with Čapek’s typical simplicity and playfulness, but, at the same time, with a distinctive expressivity in the brushwork. The dynamic swirls of the sky contrast with the firm lines of the architecture and the carefree nature of childhood. In the context of Čapek’s work, this painting features one of his iconic motifs, which he employed systematically from the mid-1920s onwards to express the purity and immediacy of a child’s view of the world. He drew inspiration from folk art, toys and his own theory of the “humblest art,” which he had formulated in 1920. At the turn of the 1920s and 1930s, he consistently worked on childhood motifs, primarily using the technique of pastel. He exhibited this work at Galerie Hugo Feigl in 1935 and at the Venice Biennale. He also created a number of oil paintings with the motif of children flying a kite with similar compositions, one of which is today held by the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris (in. no. JP 706 P). Čapek was not interested in merely illustrating children playing with a kite, but in the symbolic expression of the relationship between the human and cosmic orders. The paper kite, flying high on a thin string and guided by the hands of children, becomes a mediator between earth and the cosmos. Children with Kite thus combines a simple, illustration-esque stylisation with modernist expressivity to produce a unique visual language where simplicity becomes a tool for philosophical discourse and humanist messaging. The work comes from the collection of the First Republic factory owner Franišek Trägner, who received it directly from the artist. Assessed in consultation with Prof. J. Zemina and PhDr. R. Michalová, PhD. The expert opinion of PhDr. P. Pečinková, CSc. is attached: “[...] This painting is part of the so-called children’s period from the turn of the 1920s and 1930s, which culminated in On the Motif of the Child, a famous set of pastels that was reproduced. During this period, Josef Čapek also created additional oils with similar subject matter and composition. [...]”