id: 153322 accession number: 1986.34 share license status: Copyrighted url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1986.34 updated: 2024-03-26 01:59:59.571000 Untitled (The Countryside of Prague), c. 1945–60. Josef Sudek (Czech, 1896–1976). Gelatin silver print; image: 9.2 x 29.5 cm (3 5/8 x 11 5/8 in.); paper: 9.9 x 29.7 cm (3 7/8 x 11 11/16 in.); matted: 40.6 x 50.8 cm (16 x 20 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, John L. Severance Fund 1986.34 title: Untitled (The Countryside of Prague) title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: c. 1945–60 creation date earliest: 1945 creation date latest: 1960 current location: creditline: John L. Severance Fund copyright: --- culture: Czechoslovakia, 20th century technique: gelatin silver print department: Photography collection: PH - Czech type: Photograph find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- CREATORS * Josef Sudek (Czech, 1896–1976) - artist Josef Sudek Czechoslovakian, b. Austria-Hungary, 1896-1976 One of the best known Czechoslovakian photographers of the 20th century, Josef Sudek was born in Kolín nad Labem, a small town near Prague. In his youth he was apprenticed to a bookbinder but, following the loss of his right arm during World War I, took up photography as a profession. Sudek became a member of Prague's Bohemian Amateur Photography Association in 1921 and the following year entered the State School of Graphic Arts in Prague, where he studied photography (1922-24). In 1924 Sudek and his friend, photographer Jaromír Funke, joined Adolf Schneeberger in founding the Czech Photographic Society ( sa). Sudek worked in Prague all his life, opening a studio there in the 1920s. Among his earliest photographs were a series of soft-focus views of the final stages of construction of Saint Vitus Cathedral. Over the next 50 years, he photographed familiar surroundings, producing hundreds of images of the streets and buildings of Prague and objects in his garden and studio, including a series of photographs taken through his studio window. He also made many landscape pictures, photographing in the great Mioní Forest Preserve. He also was successful as an advertising and commercial photographer. Beginning in the 1920s, Sudek took part in many exhibitions; his work has also been featured in several one-person shows, including retrospectives at George Eastman House, Rochester (1974), the International Center of Photography, New York (1977), and the Philadelphia Museum of Art (1990). He was the first photographer honored with the title Artist of Merit (1961) by the Czech government, which also awarded him the Order of Work (1966). M.M. --- measurements: Image: 9.2 x 29.5 cm (3 5/8 x 11 5/8 in.); Paper: 9.9 x 29.7 cm (3 7/8 x 11 11/16 in.); Matted: 40.6 x 50.8 cm (16 x 20 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: inscriptions: inscription: Scratched into image on recto: "Sudek [signed]" translation: remark: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS title: Year in Review for 1986 opening date: 1987-02-04T05:00:00 Year in Review for 1986. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 4-March 15, 1987). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS * {'description': 'CMA, February 4 - March 15, 1987: "Year in Review 1986," CMA Bulletin, 74 (February 1987), p. 67, no. 96.', 'opening_date': '1987-02-04T00:00:00'} --- PROVENANCE --- fun fact: digital description: wall description: --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS Cleveland Museum of Art, Tom E Hinson. Catalogue of Photography. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1996. page number: Reproduced: P. 350 url: --- IMAGES