Czech Republic (Czechia) 2005 "Works of art on postage stamps"

Issue Date	09.11.2005
ID	Michel: 451-453; Scott: 327-329; Stanley Gibbons: 449-451; Yvert et Tellier: 412-414; Category: pR
Design	Engraver Milos Ondracek, Vclav Fajt
Stamps in set	3
Value	22 CZK - works of art on postage stamps - Adolf Kosarek 25 CZK - works of art on postage stamps - Zdenek Burian 26 CZK - works of art on postage stamps - Alois Kalvoda
Emission/Type	commemorative
Places of issue	Prague
Size (width x height)	40mm x 50mm
Layout	3 Mini-Sheets, 4 stamp each (2x2)
Products	FDC x3, Mini-Sheets x3
Paper
Perforation	11,75 x 11,75
Print Technique	recess print from flat plate in yellow, blue, green, dark green and red
Printed by	Post Printing House
Quantity
Issuing Authority	Czech Post

On November 9^th, 2005, Post authority of Czech Republic issued a set of 3 stamps "Works of art on postage stamps". One of the stamps shows the painting of Deinotherium created by the famous Czech paleo-artist, Zdenek Burian.

Zdenek Burian (1905-1981): Deinotherium, 1940, Charles University in Prague.

Zdenek Burian on cachet of personalized postal stationery

"Deinotherium on Works of art on postage stamps of Czech Republic 2005	Deinotherium on an art work of Zdenek Burian

At 14 years of age Zdenek Burian, Czech painter and illustrator of books for young people, became a student of the 2nd class at the Academy in Prague where he was taught by M. Švabinský, J. Obrovský and V. Bukovac. Two years later the first book with his illustrations was published and from 1923 he was a painter for the Graphic Union of geographical and ethnographical paintings which became a part of school education. His vivid distinctive drawings full of dynamism and suspense enriched numerous books of adventure (by London, May, Defoe, Štorch, etc.) and magazines. In 1935 he met J. Augusta, professor of palaeontology at Charles University, which was the beginning of the remarkable cooperation of a scientist and an artist in the creation of scientific reconstructions of primeval life. Despite its inadequacies in some respects due to new excavations and research studies this work is still an unsurpassed highlight of artistic reconstructions of the primeval age. Zdenek Burian is one of the hardest working Czech painters of all time. The postage stamp features the family of deinotherium, a separate blind line of proboscideans living in Europe at the end of the Neogene period.





Adolf Kosárek (1830-1859): Summer Landscape (detail), 1858, The Prague Castle collections.
The outstanding Czech painter of landscapes A. Kosárek attended the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague as a student of M. Haushofer.
At the beginning he tried to express the contemporary type of an ideal romantic landscape but he gradually moved to realism based on a penetrating study of nature.
Well known are his versions of the Landscape with a Bridge but he was attracted also with lonely and solitary lands.
At the close of his short life he painted balladic pictures of the Czech landscape while arriving at a synthetic monumental form.
The painting "Summer Landscape", whose detail is featured on the postage stamp, is an apt expression of the summer atmosphere and life of the period.

Alois Kalvoda (1875-1934): Osiky nearby Velké Nemcice, 1897, The Moravian Gallery in Brno.
The Czech painter, graphic designer, illustrator, editor of the Dílo magazine A. Kalvoda attended the Academy in Prague as a student of J. Marák.
However he soon began to deviate from his school of melancholic landscapes and moved to an emotional, impressionistic landscape of decorative character both in motif and colour.
He painted simple motifs of the Czech land in broad brush-strokes and clear merry colour covering the momentary mood with a subtle feeling.
His outstanding works are from the country round about Rohatec, Strážnice, Breclav. In 1932 he published his own edition of his book called "Memories".
The postage stamp features an engraving of one of Kalvoda´s first works, "Osiky nearby Velké Nemcice".

Products and associated philatelic items

FDC (clean and circulated)	Mini Sheets	Example of circulated covers
First-Day-of-Issue Postmarks

References

• Technical details: Colnect Czech Post

Acknowledgements

Many thanks to Dr. Peter Voice, PhD Department of Geological and Environmental Sciences, Western Michigan University, USA, for his help in finding information and for review of a draft of this article.