Jan Konůpek - Czech "Interwar" Printmaker Extraordinaire

                                                     (From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

Jan Konůpek (October 10, 1883 in Mladá Boleslav – March 13, 1950 in Prague) was an internationally renowned Czech painter, illustrator, and engraver. A list of his graphic works comprises 1448 works and more than 600 book illustrations. He is among the three greatest known Czechs for Interwar art, alongside František Kobliha and František Drtikol.

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There are not many Eastern European print makers that I like as much as I do Jan Konůpek.  Others that I like are Kobliha and Hodek.  Konůpek had a very unique style which was borderline eccentric.  Oftentimes his images are both beautiful and grotesque at the same time.  His sense of fantasy and religion are two major components that I often see in his Ex Libris prints as well as his free graphics.  The images below came form an elderly collector in a remote village in the Czech Republic.  He apparently has one of the largest Konůpek collections around and I am happy to be the owner of this small set of very fine prints.