Lot description
oil on jute canvas, 55 x 38 cm, signed lower left: Capek, dated lower right: 39. Provenance: significant collection Prague. Publicated: Catalogue raisonné of Josef Capek's artistic works, part three: oil paintings, Pavla Pecinkova, published by the 8smicka Foundation in Humpolec in 2023, reproduced on p. 679. Expertise by the recognized expert and author of the Catalogue raisonné of the Works of Josef Capek, Dr Pavla Pecinkova, dated February 16, 2026, enclosed. Record of the inspection of the painting Desire by J. Capek in the depository of the National Gallery in the Veletrzni Palace on September 29, 1998, enclosed. Expertise on the painting technique and authenticity by Mojmir Hamsik, dated June 20, 1998, enclosed. Restoration expertise of Mgr. Biliana Casadiego from 1998, enclosed. Laboratory Report dated July 8, 1998, enclosed. Further consulted with Dr Irena Zantovska Murray HonFRIBA, Professor Jaromir Zemina, Dr Jiri Machalicky and Vladimir Lekes. The presented painting is a typical example of Capek’s figurative work – a solitary female figure set in a simplified landscape, conceived through distinctive contours and reduced shapes. The figure of the girl is modeled in a flat manner with all distinguishing facial features suppressed, thereby achieving a sense timelessness in the scene. The colors of the dress have symbolic meaning: the blue, red, and white are reminiscent of the Czechoslovak tricolor and stem from the artist's concerns about the future of the Czech nation and his fear of the approaching war, which proved fatal for him.
