Vincenc Beneš (1883-1979)

BOUQUET

Ca 1960
Oil on canvas, 73.5×61 cm (89×75.5 cm), signed lower right "V. Beneš". Framed. The painting depicts a rich floral still life in a decorated ceramic vase with ornamental décor, which serves as the stable foundation of the entire scene. Beneš works with a free, impasto brushwork in which individual blooms are composed of short, energetic brushstrokes. The colour is vivid and contrasting: purple, pink and yellow accents of the flowers stand out sharply against the cool blue-green background. Still life was among Vincenc Beneš`s favoured motifs, especially from the 1920s onward, when, following his experience with French Modernism, he turned to a liberated colourism and a more expressive painterly manner. Beneš was a member of the group Osma (The Eight), which at the beginning of the century represented one of the first significant manifestations of modern painting in the Czech milieu. After study sojourns in Paris, he absorbed the impulses of Post-Impressionism and Fauvism, which he subsequently transformed into a distinctive painterly synthesis characterised by an emphasis on colour matter and spontaneous gesture. Beneš`s painterly approach creates a bridge between the generation of the early avant-garde and the later form of Czech Modernism. His still lifes from his mature period are distinguished by painterly freedom, an emphasis on colour composition, and the ability to transform the traditional motif of flowers into a strikingly modern pictorial structure. The presented work is a typical example of this mode: the classical theme of the still life is interpreted here with an energy and colour intensity that references both French Modernists and the distinctive tradition of Czech colourist painting of the first half of the 20th century. Condition A.