Zdeňka Černý

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Zdeňka Černý by Alphonse Mucha

Zdeňka Černý turns a page at a music stand while holding her cello. Large lettering below calls her “the greatest Bohemian violoncellist.” The Library of Congress dates this colour-lithograph poster to 1913 and connects it to a planned 1914–15 European tour disrupted by war.^[1] A dated letter from Mucha quoted in a Smithsonian-hosted study places the portrait and Neubert’s reproduction work in March 1913, resolving the Mucha Foundation heading’s conflicting 1903 date.^[2][4]

At a Glance

• Date1913, Library of Congress^[1]
• Mediumcolour lithograph
• Subjectcellist Zdeňka Černý
• PrinterV. Neubert, Smíchov, Prague^[1]
• LOC held sheet200 × 124 cm^[1]

Contents

1. A musician at work
2. A dated letter and a working portrait
3. Resolving two printed dates
4. Looking again

A musician at work

The poster gives the cellist the upper picture field and the printed claim the lower one. Černý is neither a decorative anonymous figure nor simply a symbol of music: the title names a performer, and the image shows her handling a score while her instrument rests against her body. Her gaze toward the stand makes the act of playing or preparing to play the subject of the picture.^[1]

The thin white forms across the lower picture and the circular ornament behind her make a stage for the seated figure. The cello’s dark curve cuts through the pale dress and balances the slant of the stand. The viewer can identify her occupation before reading the English line; the line then turns recognition into promotion for a concert tour.

The Foundation recounts Mucha’s friendship with the Černý family after staying with them in Chicago in 1906. Her father, A. V. Černý, taught music; her older sister Milada played piano.^[2] Mucha had promised to portray Zdeňka when she became a concert artist. An article from the School Sisters of Notre Dame archive identifies Zdeňka as a student at Chicago’s Academy of Our Lady around 1912–14 and places her in the orchestra for a school production. That setting gives the named musician a life beyond the poster’s promotional line.^[5]

A dated letter and a working portrait

The strongest chronology comes from Mucha himself. Art historian Anna Daley quotes a letter he wrote to his wife on 3 March 1913: he had drawn Zdeňka, the Černýs had sent the drawing to Neubert for reproduction, and the resulting poster would serve her planned European tour the following year.^[4] The thesis reproduces this statement from a published collection of Mucha’s letters; it does not reproduce the original manuscript. Even through that mediation, the letter ties the portrait, printer and tour to a precise moment ten years after the Foundation heading’s 1903 date.

The school archive says Zdeňka posed with her cello for a photograph that Mucha used as a working source.^[5] Daley reads the finished poster as unusually restrained beside Mucha’s more elaborate decorative designs: musician, instrument and stand carry much of the message, while circular white ornament remains behind and before the figure.^[4] The result is a portrait with a clear professional purpose. The text below supplies a superlative advertising claim, not an independently established rank among cellists.

Resolving two printed dates

The Library of Congress catalogues its sheet as a 1913 colour lithograph, printed by V. Neubert in Smíchov, Prague. It measures that held sheet at 200 × 124 centimetres and records its 2015 purchase from Rennert’s Gallery.^[1] The Foundation’s record heads the work 1903 and gives 189 × 110 cm, yet its own narrative places the portrait after Mucha’s stay with the family and before the 1914–15 tour.^[2] The dated letter and the Library’s record support 1913, while the Foundation’s catalogue discrepancy remains visible to the reader. The Foundation’s Czech version repeats its English date and is a translation, not independent confirmation of 1903.^[2]

The tour needs more careful wording than “never happened.” The Library of Congress and Foundation describe it as cancelled because of World War I.^[1][2] The school archive says Zdeňka and her father left Chicago in June 1914, reached Prague, and then had to cut the trip short; it cannot establish whether she gave any performances there.^[5] Thus the itinerary began, but the advertised European concert programme did not proceed as planned. Daley says the poster was never used for its intended tour, whereas a 1972 historical account excerpted by a California newspaper reports later use on American tours.^[4][6] The available sources do not establish where or how many of the lithographs were displayed. The secure statement is that the poster was made for the projected European campaign and that war disrupted it.

The catalogue measurements make more sense when the poster’s construction is considered. Swann Galleries catalogued one example as two sheets, with a roughly square 108 × 108 cm image panel and a separate 80 × 108 cm text panel.^[8] Another Swann lot, measuring about 107 × 109 cm, was explicitly sold without the text sheet.^[9] A Dutch dealer’s near-square 104.2 × 104.8 cm print measurement may likewise describe an image-only example, although its catalogue does not establish that relationship.^[7] The Library of Congress records a complete 200 × 124 cm sheet and the Foundation lists 189 × 110 cm for its object.^[1][2] Those institution-specific dimensions remain distinct: panel arrangement and measuring conventions could account for some differences, but textual records cannot prove exact print-state identities or which impression supplied the local digital file.

The printed poster and Mucha’s original portrait also have separate histories. The Foundation says Zdeňka’s son Otto Vasak donated a signed poster to it in 1994, now viewable at the Mucha Museum in Prague.^[3] A California report says Vasak also donated a portrait inherited from his mother to an Orinda sister-city foundation, where it was displayed at City Hall; that report draws on Katherine Wagner Seineke’s 1972 account of the drawing returning to Zdeňka through her father.^[6] The reports concern different objects and collections. They do not establish that the local digital reproduction shows either donated item.

The English superlative on the poster and the Prague printing line serve different purposes. The first addresses a prospective concert audience through publicity language; the second documents where the lithograph was produced.^[1] Neither establishes where copies were posted or whether a particular audience in Europe saw them. This distinction is useful because the interrupted tour left behind a printed advertisement whose proposed use is clearer than its actual circulation. The dated letter proves planning and reproduction work; it cannot be used as a record of performances or poster distribution.^[1][4]

Looking again

Follow the page-turning hand, music stand and cello before reading the claim below. The design makes a specific musician’s practice visible and then names her to the passer-by. Its story is unusually well dated by a letter written while the portrait and printing were being prepared.^[1][4]

Watch: Alphonse Mucha

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▶01 · Art Nouveau overviewAlphonse Mucha: Plongez dans l’Art nouveau !Grand Palais▶02 · Paris and designAlphonse Mucha: Art Nouveau in ParijsKunstmuseum Den Haag▶03 · Prague and the Slav EpicPrague’s Art Nouveau, Mucha, and the Slav EpicRick Steves Classroom Europe

Frequently Asked Questions

References

1. Library of Congress, “Zdeňka Černý The greatest Bohemian violoncellist,” item 2015651442. View source.
2. Mucha Foundation, “Zdeňka Černý,” object 290; heading and narrative contain a date conflict. View source.
3. Mucha Foundation, “Gifts and Legacies,” 1994 donation of a signed poster by Černý’s son. View source.
4. Anna Daley, Alphonse Mucha in Gilded Age America, 1904–1921 (Smithsonian/Parsons MA thesis, 2007), pp. 65–67; quotes Mucha’s 3 March 1913 letter via Jiří Mucha’s published collection. View source.
5. School Sisters of Notre Dame North American Archives, “Academy of Our Lady, Class of 1913: Sarah Byrne’s Scrapbook,” with researched account of Černý’s schooling and 1914 journey. View source.
6. Sora O’Doherty, “Orinda City Hall houses rare and beautiful artwork,” Lamorinda Weekly, 26 July 2017; excerpts Katherine Wagner Seineke, “Mucha’s Chicago Poster,” Chicago History Magazine (1972). View source.
7. Inter-Antiquariaat, spring 2023 Dutch catalogue, lot 25, separately catalogued impression and measurement. View source.
8. Swann Galleries, sale 2435, lot 214, 1913 Zdenka Cerny lithograph catalogued as separate image and text panels. View source.
9. Swann Galleries, sale 2660, lot 26, 1913 Zdenka Cerny lithograph, sold without text sheet. View source.

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