Jakub Schikaneder

(1855-1924)


Jakub Schikaneder was born in Prague and studied there at the Academy of Fine Arts in 1870-1878. He combined his social feeling and knowledge of contemporary European painting in depicting women in hardship, old age and poverty. Schikaneder's best known works are of structures set in Prague with  themes of fate. The painter lived in seclusion after 1910 and did  not displayed his paintings in public. A 1922 trip to the northern coast of Germany inspired him to paint vistas of the coastline, piers, lighthouses and harbors, in  the last phase of his career.

murder  Murder in the House
Presented at the international exhibition Berlin in 1890.  This was his attempt to win recognition beyond Prague. Unfortunately, the viewers most just wondered if the painting depicted the murder or suicide of the girl.

 The specific place that inspired the artist has been identified as a dark courtyard at end of a dead-end street in the Jewish section of Prague, where the poorest of Prague’s inhabitants lived.


All Souls Day

All Souls Day
National Gallery, Prague
1888

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