Ludvík Kuba, Peasant woman from around Knin, ink wash and white tempera, inv. no. 1825⁠

Ludvig Kuba (Ludvik Ljudevit Kuba)

Painter, travel writer and ethnomusicologist. He studied in Prague, Munich and Paris. He was the last Czech Impressionist, a student of Antun Ažba School in Munich. He mainly painted landscapes, portraits and still lifes. He returned to Prague in 1911 and has since traveled through Slavic countries again. He traveled to Slovakia, Russia and the Balkans.

He drew some of the most picturesque and beautiful records of Bosnia and Herzegovina at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. He was a passionate ethnographer and musicologist who wrote over 4,000 songs of Slavic peoples. For his professional work in the field of ethnology, he received the title of Doctor of Science in 1936 at Charles University in Prague. He was a member of the Czech Academy and a member of Yugoslav Academy of Sciences and Arts in Zagreb (Kingdom of Yugoslavia). On the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the artist’s birth, an impressive retrospective exhibition “Ludovik Kuba – the Last Impressionist” was organized at the National Gallery in Prague.