Czech Artists in France 1850-1870

This dissertation examines Czech painters who resided in France during the 1850s and 1860s. As the first pioneering generation to establish Czech-French artistic relations, these artists played a formative role in shaping the development of visual arts between the two cultures and served as key models for later Czech artists arriving in Paris in subsequent decades. While for some, France was a brief stop on their European travels, others remained for extended periods, actively engaging with the French art world, responding to local cultural influences, and, in certain cases - most notably Jaroslav Čermák - achieving significant professional success. Focusing on the experiences of these "Czech Parisians," the dissertation offers a systematic and comprehensive study of their time in France. Drawing on archival sources and artworks, it reconstructs the artists' social networks, which directly influenced their international experiences. It closely analyses their educational paths, particularly in private studios of French masters, and explores their practice of copying in Parisian museums. The study also traces their participation in the Paris Salons and provincial exhibitions, and-addressing this topic in detail for the first time-investigates their interaction with the art market as a key mechanism...