Adolf Kosárek

Adolf Kosárek (6 January 1830, Herálec – 29 October 1859, Prague) was a Czech landscape painter in the Realist style.

Adolf Kosárek; portrait sketch by Viktor Barvitius

Biography

His parents were employed as servants by the Trauttmannsdorff family. From an early age, he displayed an interest in art, but his father wanted him to enter the civil service. After completing his primary education, he worked as a clerk until his drawings were noticed by Archbishop Schwarzenberg, who arranged for him to take the entrance exams at the Academy of Fine Arts, Prague.[1]

He was accepted and studied there with the landscape painter, Max Haushofer. Later, he took a study trip to the Bavarian Alps, financed with money from the sales of his paintings. In 1856, he paid a working visit to Rügen, on the Baltic.[2]

Eventually, he settled in the district of Prague known as Malá Strana and opened a studio. He also married his landlady's daughter, Františka; a seamstress. Shortly after the birth of their first child, he died of tuberculosis, aged only twenty-nine.[1] A painting by Josef Mánes (Švadlenka) shows Františka when she learned of his illness, while sewing her wedding dress.

Selected paintings
  • Mountain Scenery
  • Lonely Landscape

References
  1. Brief biography from the Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie @ WikiSource.
  2. Biographical notes @ the Österreichisches Biographisches Lexikon.

Further reading
  • Eva Reitharová: Adolf Kosárek, Mala Galerie #32, Odeon, 1984
  • Naděžda Blažíčková-Horová et al., Adolf Kosárek, 1830–1859, (exhibition catalog) National Gallery, Prague, 1990 ISBN 80-7035-014-8
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