Milenci - J.Preisler (1906)

Jan Preisler was born into the family of an employee in the metallurgical industry in Kralowy Dwor. He attended elementary school in Králová Huta, Popovič and Beroun. At first a self-taught artist, Preisler drew the attention of the school authorities in Beroun with his drawings. With the consent of his family and the financial support of a group of wealthy countrymen (including Emil Kratochvil, the owner of the company where Jan's father worked), Preisler left for Prague at the age of 15, where he enrolled in the Higher School of Applied Arts and studied under František Ženišek (in 1887). After completing this education, the artist, together with Karel Špillar, rents an art studio in Malostranská. During the years of his studies Preisler established contacts with the Manes Artists' Union and joined it. He actively worked in the Union's printed organs, and in 1894 he drew the cover for the Union's album Listy z palety. In 1902 Preisler, together with his artist friend Antonin Gudechek, traveled to Italy; in Vienna he met Auguste Rodin. In 1905 he was the organizer of the Prague exhibition of Edvard Munch, the author of the poster for this exhibition. In 1906 the artist travels to Paris, where he gets acquainted with the work of Paul Gauguin. Since 1903 Jan Preisler has been teaching nude painting at the Higher School of Applied Arts in Prague. Between 1913 and 1918 he was a professor of painting at the Prague Academy of Fine Arts. Among his many pupils was, among others, Vlastimil Rada. In 1909, the French artist Emile-Antoine Bourdelle visited Preisler's studio. In 1914, the artist married Božena Pallasova, from a Prague family of artisans. In this marriage he had a son Jan and a daughter Božena. J. Preisler died of pneumonia in 1918.