Modernist Portrait Of Two Girls By Frantisek Hofman (czech Republic, 1891–1969)

This Expressionist portrait of two peasant women was painted around the 1930s by the Czech painter František Hofman (1891, Přeštice – 1969, Prague). In his work, he focused on nudes, women, and portraits. His works include paintings of President Masaryk, Sokol Mayor Josef Scheiner, Renata Tyršová, and the Infant Jesus of Prague.
From 1908 to 1915, he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague under professors František Ženíšek and August Bröms. In 1928, he exhibited at the Exhibition of Contemporary Culture in Brno. In 1931, he exhibited with the Union of Fine Artists at the Topiè Salon in Prague, and from 1940 to 1942 in Zbeèno u Rakovníka, also at the Rakovník Salons. After 1950, circumstances forced him to focus more on natural landscapes. He spent most of the year traveling. He traveled to the Beskid Mountains to paint natural scenes and regularly spent his summers at a hunting lodge near Karlovice in the Jesenice region. He conducted ethnographic studies of folk costumes and took unique photographs during his trips to Slovakia.

After 1964, he was expelled from the Union of Czechoslovak Fine Artists and evicted from his studio. An unsuitable room in the U Dvou sluncù building on Nerudova Street was assigned to him as a temporary space. His name was last mentioned in Toman’s New Dictionary of Czech Artists in the 1947 edition; it did not appear in the 2003 edition.
Exhibitions (selection): 1936 – Topic’s Salon, Prague [2013 – Přeštice, Přeštice History House, “Forgotten Painters of Přeštice.”

The artist is listed in: Dr. Prokop Toman, Dictionary of Czech Painters, Prague, 1947.

Inscription: signed lower right.

Technique: oil on canvas/cardboard. Original period frame.

Dimensions: unframed 46 x 36.5 cm, framed 61.5 x 50.5 cm.

Condition: very good.