Page:Modern and contemporary Czech art (1924).pdf/38

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themes from Red Indian Life (“The Elements”) or the great cycle “Old Slavonic Life,” where the instinct of genius makes up for the lack of scientific research. All through his long life, his unfailing creative impulse and his rich narrative faculty found no other outlet than drawings in pen-and-ink or charcoal, now and then set off with colour. The number of these drawings, some of them tinged with deep melancholy and others artlessly playful, a true mirror of his impressionable Slavonic soul, runs into thousands. Here Aleš, in a manner thoroughly his own, gives us his rendering of all that is dear to the heart of the Czech people: stirring pages of national history, outstanding personalities of our prosperous days and our periods of humiliation, the poetry of olden times, popular songs, tales and sayings. Learned in Czech history and literature, and one to whom patriotism was a religion, he conjures up, with a vivid and expressive line, and an extraordinary keenness and unity of vision, the great deeds of the past. Himself of provincial origin, he became the delineator of the countryfolk, depicting their manners and customs in all their old-world poetic charm. Like Mánes, he illustrated folk-songs, in hundreds of sheets where text, score and illustration form a living whole, thoroughly Czech in spirit. These drawings, reproduced in numerous copies, were distributed all over the country, and, coming into everyone’s hands, grew to be a notable part of the national heritage. Thus he became the educator of children, the friend of the great, the last of those “heralds”? to whom we owe our nineteenth century revival. Aleš, who died shortly before the war, is to-day the most popular of Czech artists, enjoying a fame which foreigners perhaps find it difficult to understand, but which has its roots in our very soul. Instinctively we fly to his drawings, for there, we feel assured, are the Czech mind and soul—livened and even enriched by this artist.