LEBEDA, Otakar - b. 1877 Praha, d. 1901 Malé Chuchel

Czech landscape painter. In 1892-97 he studied at the Prague Academy with Julius Maøák (1832-1899), and then in 1898 in Paris at the Académie Colarossi. In Paris he became acquainted with the colourful tones of Impressionism which nevertheless did not suppress the expressiveness of his paintings. He painted landscapes in the forest of Fontainebleau, in Brittany and Normandy.

He was a man of a great sensitivity. He was attracted with motifs of mountains which he used as the background for expressing his sadness and loneliness. Deep depressions led him to the tragic end of his life, he became neurotic and committed suicide. His prematurely ended work belongs to the most significant ones in the Czech art on the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries and maintains a stable position in the development of modern landscape painting.

Lilac. Village Path

Otakar Lebeda, who spent a year working in France and shot himself at the age of 24 following a nervous disorder, painted landscapes now sad, now turbulent, which show him essentially locating an Impressionist style, though he also shared the fractured mood of the Symbolist Nineties.