Visual Arts

Expert Worker
Mgr. Michal Soukup,

+420 728 736 457
Email: soukup.momgm.cz

The sub-collection of visual arts consists of three main groups of works: 1) painting, 2) sculpture, and 3) graphic works. The items included in the collection primarily originate from Europe, with a predominant portion being of regional provenance, especially from the areas of Most, Litvínov, and Kateřinsko. The original city museum, established in 1888, was focused on the then-political district of Most, which included the judicial districts of Most, Upper Litvínov, and the Mountain of Saint Catherine. In addition, purchases were already being made in the 19th century through the Most merchant Israel Schwarze, which brought exotic items and curiosities into the museum's collection.

The period covered by the collection documents the development of visual arts practically from the 14th to the 21st century. By its nature, the collection items represent a visually high-quality collection, in which, during the transformation into the District Museum in Most in the 1960s (the predecessor of today's Regional Museum), works from several museums were concentrated, namely from the City Museum in Most, into whose collections the Podkrušnohorské Museum in Most had already transferred, the City Museum in Upper Litvínov, and the Local Museum in the Mountain of Saint Catherine.

The foundation of the visual arts collection of the Most museum was laid by Josef Konstantin Beer, a conservationist, restorer, and painter, who in the 1880s had paintings and sculptures from the 16th to 18th centuries transferred to the then-City Museum in Most, which were removed during the modernization of the dean's church in Most. The museum's collection was ultimately enriched in 1933 by the estate of J. K. Beer himself, who, after his tenure in Most, worked as a curator and restorer at the present-day Hungarian National Gallery in Budapest. During his lifetime, he amassed both a valuable collection of paintings and created copies of works by old masters for the purpose of studying period painting techniques. The collection includes both his own paintings, studies, and sketches, as well as works by young artists from the 1930s, for whose support a separate foundation was established according to his will. The collection was transferred from Budapest to Most in 1934 and comprises 143 pieces of collection items. The oldest report from the committee of the former museum association from April 4, 1933, states that the association inherited 178 oil paintings and 40 pictures. The collection was then cataloged by the prominent art historian Josef Opitz, who soon prepared an exhibition from the estate of J. K. Beer.

Along with this collection, the funds were significantly expanded by the legacies of Emil Franz Uhl and August Wenzel Hablik. E. F. Uhl (*1864 – †1945) was a painter and traveler born in Most. He traveled mainly in the Orient, exploring the Middle East, the Caucasus, and Central Asia. In his time, he was one of the most significant painters of the Orient. The Most museum today owns the largest collection of his paintings and photographs. The second named, A. W. Hablik (*1881 – †1934), was a painter, graphic artist, textile designer, and interior architect. He was also born in Most. He was part of the circle around the German magazine Kunstwart, which focused on poetry, theater, music, visual, and applied arts. He exhibited in Berlin, Hamburg, Prague, and even in his native Most. Among other things, he captured Most in several of his paintings. He spent most of his life (from 1907) in Itzehoe, Germany (Schleswig-Holstein), where he also died. Here is the Wenzel-Hablik-Museum, managed by the Wenzel-Hablik-Stiftung foundation.

“The collections in Litvínov and the Mountain of Saint Catherine were formed gradually through purchases and donations without the possibility of significantly influencing the formation of the collection's value.” The collection was then supplemented by sets of visual works documenting the transformations of the city of Most. The collection continues to be supplemented mainly through property transfers, purchases, and donations. The collection of paintings includes various types of works, primarily panel painting, oil on canvas, but also painting on copper plates. The collection is numerically represented by drawings, watercolors, gouaches, lithographs, engravings, etc. The paintings represent themes of religion, portraits, genre scenes, still lifes, landscapes, and more. The drawings include studies for portraits, city motifs, etc., primarily using techniques such as charcoal, pencil, chalk, and pastel. Among the most valuable collections are panel paintings from the Gothic and Renaissance periods, largely exhibited today in the dean's church in Most. The collection of paintings by Norbert Grunt and a group of works by Italian masters from the 15th and 16th centuries is also significant. A large heterogeneous group consists of works by authors from the 18th to the 20th centuries, among which we find, for example, a large-format painting by Alphonse Mucha depicting the god Mammon, originally part of the interior decoration of the Most savings bank. The collection is also being expanded with works by contemporary authors.

The fund of sculptural works contains figurative sculptures, sculptural works with religious and secular motifs, and components of ornamental decoration of altars, etc. In terms of materials, it includes wooden polychrome carvings, stone sculptural elements, as well as stone statues and tombstones (sandstone, marble), but also sculptural works made of metals such as bronze, tin, alloys, etc. Among the significant collections are again works from the Gothic period, alongside which the sculptural production from the Baroque period is strongly represented. Here, a significant collection is the group of apostles by Jan Adam Dietz from the 18th century. The most numerous collection is the graphic collection, which is characterized by a variety of techniques and provenance, dating from the 17th to the 20th century.

From an art-historical perspective, this is a highly valuable collection of visual arts. However, the museum has not yet managed to surpass the extraordinary success of its largest and most significant exhibition opened on September 2, 1928, which focused on Gothic art in northwestern Bohemia from Jáchymov to Litoměřice. The exhibition was realized in Most by the prominent art historian, as well as scientist, museum curator, and painter Josef Opitz. He had already presented Baroque and Rococo works from the districts of Most and Duchcov in Most a year earlier, in 1927. The Gothic art exhibition included a total of 160 paintings and sculptures, with works that could not be exhibited documented in photographs in the exhibition. Both mentioned exhibitions highlighted the high value and great potential of the visual arts collection of the Most museum. Today, only a part of it is on display, as a loan in the dean's church in Most, the North Bohemian Gallery of Fine Arts in Litoměřice, and at the City Hall in Litvínov.