Zrání (High Summer)
About this artwork
When Kokoschka left Czechoslovakia for London in 1938, he was only able to bring £5 in cash, a small suitcase and one painting, called Girls Bathing. Zrání is the same picture, although it underwent a complete reworking in 1940. The landscape combines elements from the Cornish coast, where the artist lived for nearly a year from 1939, with memories of his homeland. The painting offers an idyllic vision of leisure and contentment, in stark contrast to the turmoil in central Europe at that time. The Czech title has no exact translation, but approximates to 'maturity', 'ripening' and 'summer'.
Updated before 2020
see media-
artist:
-
title:Zrání (High Summer)
-
date created:1938 - 1940
-
materials:Oil on canvas
-
measurements:68.30 x 89.20 cm; Framed: 94.00 x 114.60 x 9.50 cm / 25.00 kg
-
object type:
-
credit line:Presented by the Czechoslovak Government in Exile 1942
-
accession number:GMA 21
-
gallery:
-
subject:
-
artwork photographed by:Antonia Reeve
Oskar Kokoschka
Oskar Kokoschka
Kokoschka studied at the School of Arts and Crafts in Vienna from 1905 to 1909, where he also worked for the Wiener Werkstätte (Viennese Workshops). Although his early work was part of the 'art nouveau' movement in Vienna, he soon developed into Austria's leading expressionist painter,...