Lot 17: Jacob Schikaneder , Czech 1855-1924 tramway in prague oil on canvas

signed with monogram lower right oil on canvas

65 by 100.8cm., 25½ by 39¾in.

Acquired by the present owner circa 1970

PROPERTY OF A GERMAN PRIVATE COLLECTOR
Schikaneder trained at the Academies of Prague (1870-78) and Munich (1878-80). During the 1880s and 1890s he established himself as a painter of genre. The brooding, melancholy mood that often pervaded these early works carried through into the more diffuse nocturnes for which he is now best known. The present work is typical of these twilight views, characterised by a sense of wide open space, isolated light sources punctuating the all-enveloping darkness, and the occasional figure to emphasise the mood of loneliness. The mood conveyed has strong resonances with Czech fin de siècle literature of the period, including the novels of Franz Kafka. It may also have been the inspiration for later twentieth-century painters, including Edward Hopper.