Jan Autengruber (25 April 1887,
Pacov
Pacov (; german: Patzau) is a town in Pelhřimov District in the Vysočina Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 4,600 inhabitants. The historic town centre is well preserved and is protected by law as an urban monument zone.
Administrative ...
– 15 July 1920,
Prague
Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...
) was a
Post-impressionist
Post-Impressionism (also spelled Postimpressionism) was a predominantly French art movement that developed roughly between 1886 and 1905, from the last Impressionist exhibition to the birth of Fauvism. Post-Impressionism emerged as a reaction aga ...
painter.
Biography
After the early death of his father, his family moved to
České Budějovice
České Budějovice (; german: Budweis ) is a city in the South Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 93,000 inhabitants. It is located in the valley of the Vltava River, at its confluence with the Malše.
České Budějovice is ...
. After completing his primary education, he was accepted at the
Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague
The Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague (AAAD, cs, Vysoká škola uměleckoprůmyslová v Praze, abbreviated VŠUP, also known as UMPRUM) is a public university located in Prague, Czech Republic. The university offers the study d ...
. After two years, he transferred to the
Academy of Fine Arts, Munich
The Academy of Fine Arts, Munich (german: Akademie der Bildenden Künste München, also known as Munich Academy) is one of the oldest and most significant art academies in Germany. It is located in the Maxvorstadt district of Munich, in Bavaria, ...
, where he was a two-time recipient of the annual award.
He achieved very little critical attention in his home country, so he exhibited widely throughout Germany: in Munich, Berlin, Dresden,
Mannheim
Mannheim (; Palatine German: or ), officially the University City of Mannheim (german: Universitätsstadt Mannheim), is the second-largest city in the German state of Baden-Württemberg after the state capital of Stuttgart, and Germany's ...
, Hannover, Cologne, Hamburg, and Frankfurt. In 1913, he was awarded a scholarship to study in Italy.
During the
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...
, he attempted to avoid being drafted by studying
restorative art at the Munich Academy, but it was only a short reprieve and he was mustered into service at
Jindřichův Hradec
Jindřichův Hradec (; german: Neuhaus) is a town in the South Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 21,000 inhabitants. The town centre is well preserved and is protected by law as an urban monument reservation.
Administrative p ...
. He managed to survive the war and settled in Prague, where he took courses in art history at the
Faculty of Arts, Charles University
The Faculty of Arts, Charles University ( cs, Filozofická fakulta Univerzity Karlovy), is one of the original four faculties of Charles University in Prague. When founded, it was named the Faculty of the Liberal Arts or the Artistic Faculty. The ...
.
In 1919, he married the artist Hana Jedličková (1888–1970). The following year, he became a victim of the
flu pandemic
An influenza pandemic is an epidemic of an influenza virus that spreads across a large region (either multiple continents or worldwide) and infects a large proportion of the population. There have been six major influenza epidemics in the last ...
, dying from a combination of flu and
pneumonia
Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severi ...
.
His wife spent her life promoting his works. A major retrospective was held in 2002 at the
National Gallery in Prague
The National Gallery Prague ( cz, Národní galerie Praha, NGP), formerly the National Gallery in Prague (), is a state-owned art gallery in Prague, which manages the largest collection of art in the Czech Republic and presents masterpieces of Cze ...
, followed by another in 2009 at the in
Plzeň.
''Plzeňská výstava představuje umělce, který přerostl české poměry''
– kultura.iDNES.cz, 22. 10. 2009
Selected paintings
Jan Autengruber - 001.jpg, View of Naples (?)
Jan Autengruber - Cesta v brezovem haji.jpg, Path in a Birch Grove
Jan Autengruber (1887-1920) - lázeň (1911).jpg, Bathing
Jan Autengruber (1887-1920) - houslistka (1913).jpg, Violinist
References
Further reading
*Vojtěch Lahoda, Jan Jedlička. ''Jan Autengruber 1887—1920''. ChechArtBooks, 2009
Review from the West Bohemian Gallery
External links
Biography and appreciation
@ the West Bohemian Gallery
Works by and about Autengruber
@ the Databáze Národní Knihovny ČR
{{DEFAULTSORT:Autengruber, Jan
1887 births
1920 deaths
People from Pacov
People from the Kingdom of Bohemia
Austro-Hungarian painters
Post-impressionist painters
Deaths from Spanish flu
Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague alumni