iPrague City Gallery (GHMP)Staré Město
Jaroslav Čermák: Myths of European Reality
At the Municipal Library: the first major retrospective in almost a century of the 19th-century Czech painter, with loans from Brussels, Antwerp, Paris and Amsterdam.
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Preview: written before the show opened
According to the gallery, a friend of Čermák's may have posed for one of his Balkan figures in Herzegovinian costume. Čermák also mixed clothing from different regions in a single figure, and scenes he set up in the studio were later read as records of real events. The show is about that gap between the painting and the story told about it.
It is the first major Čermák show in almost a century. You follow a Prague-born painter trained in Antwerp and Brussels who showed at the Paris Salon and was received at the court of Montenegro's Prince Nikola. Works by his contemporaries hang alongside his own. The National Gallery Prague lends 53 restored works, and many loans from Brussels, Antwerp, Paris and Amsterdam are shown in the Czech Republic for the first time.
It's in the Municipal Library building (GHMP Knihovna) on Mariánské náměstí. Tickets are CZK 200 (CZK 90 reduced), sold at GHMP ticket offices or on GoOut. Thursdays it stays open until 8pm.
Editor's pick
The first major retrospective in almost a century of the 19th-century Czech painter, with loans from Brussels, Antwerp, Paris and Amsterdam, at the Municipal Library.
Look for
Herzegovinian Women Returning to a Village (1877)
Look for women coming home to a village pillaged by bashi-bazouks, finding the cemetery ravaged and the church destroyed, lent by the Prague Castle Administration.
Hussites Defending a Mountain Pass (1857)
An early history painting of Taborite fighters holding a sunken mountain track, from the National Gallery Prague.
Abduction of a Herzegovinian Woman (1861)
A young woman carried off into captivity, the kind of Balkan scene the gallery says was later read as a record of a real event.
Good for
- Evening Visits
- Nerding Out
- Out-Of-Town Guests
With kids
Children aged 6 to 10 pay CZK 50, and a CZK 450 family ticket covers two adults and up to four under-15s. A children's book, Jaroslav Čermák. Romantický výlet po Evropě, is published with the show.
Also at Prague City Gallery (GHMP)
On now nearby
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Image credits
9
- Jaroslav Čermák: Myths of European RealityCourtesy of Prague City Gallery (GHMP)
- Radka Bodzewicz: FAUSTCourtesy of DOX Centre for Contemporary Art
- Květa Kovářová – For the Shape of the FigureCourtesy of Museum Kampa
- Czech Press Photo 2025Tomáš Binter / Czech Press Photo
- Prague City Gallery (GHMP)Deror avi, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Jewish Museum in PragueFeťour / Wikimedia Commons, CC0
- Mucha Museum (Savarin Palace)Crestyl, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague (UPM)Kirgyt12 - Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
- National Gallery Prague – Convent of St Agnes of BohemiaVitVit, CC BY-SA 4.0