AN ILLUSTRATED FOLK SONG
by Mikuláš Aleš, born 1852, died 1915.
Every Bohemian pronounces the name of Aleš with respect, with love and pride. There is no other genius among the artists of the Czechoslovak people who has brought out the soul of the people, the people of cottages and fields, so well as Nicholas Aleš. His art is Bohemian art; he will never acquire world fame, because his appeal is to the Bohemian heart. He created a type of the Czech peasant that he uses constantly in his illustrations. His great work is the pictorical representation of hundreds of Bohemian folk songs. In addition to that he has decorated public and private buildings in Prague with his characteristic sketches, furnished illustrations for the choice literary works of Bohemia and also produced many oil and water paintings. The Bohemian National Theatre of Prague, an architectural gem, was decorated by Aleš.
The picture shown above illustrates the lamentations of a girl whose father perished in fire, mother in flood, brother was killed in war, sister was carried away by plague, and she herself was dying of unrequited love.
