Oil on canvas
91 x 99 cm, 111.5 x 121 cm (framed)
Signed lower right
Šetelík's charming view of Prague over the Vltava river under the Charles Bridge to the Cathedral of St. Vitus above captures all the magic of the beguiling gothic city. A highly gifted painter he shows off all his skill here, masterfully capturing the often ungraspable natural phenomena of water, clouds, mist and air and indeed the light above the old city.
Born in Tábor, Bohemia, Śetelík initially studied law and only additionally to it, trained under the landscape painter Ferdinand Engelmüller. Giving up law to focus solely on painting he moved to Munich to gain experience before returning to Prague to enrol at the Academy of Fine Arts, where he was a student of Rudolf von Ottenfeld. It was here that he rubbed shoulders with other esteemed painters, the likes of Karel Langer and Augustin Satra. In 1929 he received the Grand Prix in the Field of Fine Arts for his Panorama of Prague exhibited at the World Exhibition in Barcelona.
