I come from Šumava and this beautiful part of our country has always had a special place in my heart. Ever since I was a small child I loved being surrounded by the peaceful meadows, crystal clear streams and waterfalls, calm forests, and quiet mountains.

            Therefore, it is quite unsurprising that during our gallery visit the work that spoke to me the most was Josef Váchal’s Šumava Dying and Romantic. It is certainly not the most beautiful piece of work I’ve ever seen, and I would undoubtedly depict Šumava in a different way, yet there is something special about it. Let me provide you the notes that were written next to Váchal’s work: “Váchal’s Šumava Dying and Romantic, is one of the most complex grasps of ecological thinking in Central European art. It combines poetic personal reflection with general view of landscape care. The agricultural question of the matter is also not far from Váchal’s view. For him, Šumava is still a free world, inhabited by beings outside the human spectrum.”

            As you can see in Váchal’s work for yourselves (I’m really sorry, but I couldn’t find a better picture), there are two beings. However, although they look like human beings, I think that Váchal’s intention was to depict a ‘different species’– just look at their weird faces. The last sentence of the previous paragraph mentions that for Váchal, “Šumava is still a free world, inhabited by beings outside the human spectrum.” That is what I like about his work the most. The fact that in reality, Šumava does not belong to people only. It belongs to all the species no matter what.