Lot 68: OLDRICH BLAZICEK

OLDRICH BLAZICEK 1887 - 1953 THE ALTNEUSCHUL, PRAGUE signed O. Blazicek and dated 1913 (lower left) oil on panel 39 3/8 by 29 1/2 in. 100 by 75 cm. Painted in 1913.

The present lot is a rare example of a synagogue painted by the Czech artist Oldrich Blazicek, who is known primarily as a painter of landscape and church interiors. Blazicek was born in 1887 in Slavkovice and eventually moved to Prague.

One of the earliest Gothic structures in Prague, the Alteneuschul, built in 1270, is the oldest surviving synagogue in Europe. A monument to the vitality of Bohemian Jewish life, it survived the vagaries of the community's history, fires, the late 19th century razing of the ghetto and the Nazi occupation, to continue serving it until the present day.