Jan Preisler

Jan Preisler (17 February 1872 – 27 April 1918, in Prague) was a Czech painter and art professor.

 Soon after completing his studies at the School of Decorative Arts in Prague, Preisler started to become actively involved in the activity of the rising generation of painters and sculptors, who joined together in the artistic association Mánes. From 1896 to 1906, he was also editor of the magazine *Volné směry* (*Free Trends*) that was published by Mánes. In 1913, he was appointed professor at the School of Painting at the Prague Academy.

Of all Czech artists, Preisler was perhaps the one who drew most inspiration from the works of the Pre-Raphaelites. This influence was linked in a creative fashion in his oeuvre with that of the paintings of Edvard Munch, and he was also captivated by the work of Pierre Puvis de Chavannes and the Belgian Symbolists. Preisler’s paintings are full of inner tension, but they do not contain aggressive symbolism, which only makes their rawness of recognition more intense. Typical of Preisler’s art is his approach to the problem of a figure in a landscape. In observing the way this developed, we can also follow Preisler’s changing understanding of this symbol and its evolution from ethereal levitating figures, through Symbolist poses, to realistic portrayal. - NG Prague