Vojtech Hynais

1854 Vienna – 1925 Prague

 

 

The represented subject might be a hint that Vojtech Hynais made this genre painting during his residency in Italy. A young mother picks grapes, whereas her child sits on the ground, preoccupied with some twigs. Both the face and the feet of the little girl dressed in a pink frilly coat stand out through their detailed and vivid depiction. The contrast between the red headscarf and the greenery of the grapes enhances the intensity of the colours in the upper part of the painting. In the background, vine leaves, covered with light spots, form a curtain of ornamental beauty.

 

When Anselm Feuerbach came to Vienna in 1873, Vojtech Hynais – who had studied at the Academy of Fine Arts since 1870 – turned out to be one of his best students. Feuerbach let the young painter participate in several of his own jobs. In May 1874, Vojtech Hynais received an Austrian grant for a residency in Italy. After a stay in Rome he continued his studies in Paris with Paul J. A. Baudry and Jean Léon Gérome. It was mainly under Baudry’s influence that his painting became lighter and more liberated. As Baudry’s assistant, he was involved in the completion of the ceiling at Palais Vanderbilt in New York. In 1880, Vojtech Hynais painted the royal loge of the Prague National Theatre, which – still incomplete – was destroyed in a fire. He carried out numerous commissions in Paris until he was appointed teacher at the restructured Academy in Prague. In 1923, Vojtech Hynais became Officer of the French Legion of Honour and, one year later, was appointed honorary professor at the Prague Academy on the occasion of his 70^th anniversary.