Max Horb

Wikipedia: "After graduating from high school, Max Horb studied law in Prague and the Academy of Fine Arts , where he was a pupil of Rudolf Bém and František Thiele , and was one of the members of the Osma group . His work consists of impressionist landscapes, later expressive portraits, still lifes and caricatures, he also deals with the theme of the street."

"Max Horb was born in Mladá Boleslav. The family came from Žamberk in the Orlické Mountains, where they have been established since the 18th century. Max's father Ferdinand founded a prosperous cloth factory in Žamberk and in November 1880 he married Berta, née Neustadtlová of Mladá Boleslav, with whom he had one son and three daughters in addition to Max.

"The family moved to Prague in 1893. Max studied at a grammar school and then law at the University of Prague. At the same time, however, he took private drawing lessons and in 1903 he became a pupil of Franz Thiele at the Prague Academy. Here he met a strong generation of young artists, many of whom were dissatisfied with the teaching at the time. He found other friends in Prague's literary circles - long before Kafka he became a friend of Max Brod and certainly many other writers.

"In October 1906, Max Horb went to study in Munich, where at the beginning of next year he was invited to an exhibition with the group Osma, organized by Bedřich Feigl, Emil Filla and Willy Nowak. Her performance caused a small scandal in Prague, positively reporting on the exhibition, which heralded the birth of Czech modern art, as the only Max Brod.

"At the Eighth exhibition, Max Horb exhibited for the first and last time of his life. In December of the same year, the painter died unexpectedly at the age of only 25. He was buried in the New Jewish Cemetery in Prague and an unusual Art Nouveau tombstone was created for him by a former classmate from the academy, Jan Štursa. The following year, Georg Kars released an album in memory of Max Horb with the memories of his friends and reproductions of some of his paintings and drawings. An exhibition of his works from his estate was organized by the Krasoumná jednota in Rudolfinum in 1909.

"Max Horb has not painted many paintings in his short life. The starting point of his work was the impressionism of the admired Max Liebermann. His portraits, landscapes and still lifes are characterized by a relaxed and expressive painterly handwriting and are reminiscent of the late works of Lovis Corinth or the young Kokoschka, whose first expressionist portraits date from the same period.

"Like many of his peers, Max Horb also drew cartoons that show his critical to sarcastic view of the life of contemporary society. Critics unanimously regarded Horb as a strong talent whose promising artistic career was thwarted by his untimely death." (author: Arno Pařík)