(Prague 1865–1898)
Design for the cover of the student’s magazine Paleta, signed Marold, mixed media, collage on paper, 35,5 x 22,5 cm, mounted, framed, verso exhibition label Myslbek, Prag and an illustration of the tableau of the Kunstvereins Skréta on the reverse, (BH)

Provenance:
Collection Rudolf Rysavy (1876–1949), Prague; Private property Germany.

Exhibited:
Ludek Marold exhibition of the entire work, Pavillon Myslbek, Prague, February/March 1935.

Literature:
Roman Prahl, München und die Anfänge des Modernismus in der tschechischen Kunst, in: zeitenblicke 5 (2006), No. 2. Birgit Jooss, München als Anziehungspunkt für tschechische Künstler in der zweiten Hälfte des 19. Jahrhunderts. Eine Betrachtung aus Münchner Sicht, in: Marek Michaela, Kovac Dusan, Pesek Jiri, Prahl Roman (Eds)., Kultur als Vehikel und als Opponent politischer Absichten, Kulturkontakte zwischen Deutschen und Tschechen und Slowaken von der Mitte des 19. Jahjrhunderts bis in die 1980er Jahre, Essen 2010, pp. 445-462.

In 1885 Czech art students founded the association „Skréta” in Munich which they named after the leading Bohemian Baroque painter Karel Skréta. Their members exchanged Czech books, maintained contacts to their homeland, showed their latest artworks and put them up for discussion. The works eventually ended up in an album which the artists called “Paleta” (Palette) and which remained in the possession of the Kunstverein. Moreover, texts were collected which received the name “Spachtle” (scraper). The texts were meant to be serious, funny, ironic or sarcastic. The association’s chronicle eventually became a periodical. Some covers of the magazine “Skréta” reached public collections, including the National Gallery in Prague. One tableau of 1885 with works by the association’s members shows the artists’ diversity. Most of the works were committed to academic studies or to the taste of the magazine’s readers. Works by artists such as Alphonse Mucha, Viktor Oliva and Ludek Marold pointed even to modern art, which Roman Prahl commented thus: “The most modern protagonist of the Skréta association was Ludek Marek who mastered the technique of brush drawing with bravura and glorified modern life. One of his designs for the cover for the Skréta association uses elements of Naturalism and Japonism in European art.” Marold’s design for the “Paleta” magazine is illustrated on the tableau.