References

Ivanka Reberski, Režek (retrospective catalog), Art Pavilion, Zagreb, 1998., p. 49; Ivo Režek / Realism as a constant in painting (monograph), Institute for Art History and City Museum Varaždin, Zagreb, 2001.

oil on canvas, 80 x 65 cm, signed upper right, in black, "Ivo Režek"

This portrait was painted by Režek in Prague during the last year of his painting studies at the local Art Academy, which he started in 1918 with Vlaho Bukovac and finished in 1924 with Franz Thille with excellent grades and the Academy's award for successful completion of studies. This important recognition, rare among foreign students at the Prague Academy, Režek earned with his painting work, but also with social engagement during his studies. He was the initiator of the establishment of the Club of Fine Art Students, their first secretary and a regular exhibitor from 1921. In addition, he was early involved in non-academic art streams as a member of the Czech Society of Artists (Umèlecká Beseda) with whom he also exhibited. In short, he knew a wide circle of artists, he was friends with many, and some he even portrayed as this painting shows. It is performed in the style of realistic expressiveness, but its morphology is innovative. To the earlier lapidary coloristic impression, Režek preferred a new plastic language of volumes on this portrait. Julius Schmitt (1884 – 1949) was a distinguished Czech novelist, screenwriter, and producer with an immense filmography. He was also a respected translator of French literary works, which certainly played a part in Režek's decision to leave Prague in 1925 and continue to innovate his painting expression in Paris. After many years of work in Paris, then the world center of fine and other artistic events, Režek's figural work grew into magical expressiveness with "new reality" connotations most visible in a series of male portraits from 1926/1927, which consistently inaugurate the concept of a universalist line of European magical realism (…), affirmed Ivanka Reberski in the catalog of the painter's retrospective held in the Art Pavilion in 1998, and later also the author of his monograph.1 Unfortunately, at that time, the Portrait of Julius Schmitt was not in Croatia as it was only recently purchased in Prague. Therefore, without any doubt, this portrait should now be added to Režek's top male portraits of neoclassical expression with a magical sign from the mid-1920s. BRP.

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