The exhibition will present a majority from the collection of paintings left to the city of Hradec Králové in 1919 by the Bishop Josef Doubrava for the planned Municipal Gallery. This generous gift, consisting of almost 100 paintings and works on paper, did not make it into the hands of the Hradec Králové Council until 1936 when it was displayed in the old Town Hall building and, later, moved into the museum, only for it to remain, for political reasons, permanently hidden from the eyes of the public after World War II. After over 70 years, the people of Hradec Králové will have the chance to see this beautiful collection, which contains works by František Ženíšek, Vojtěch Bartoňek, František Urban, Max Švabinský, Luďek Marold, Antonín Slavíček, Jaroslav Panuška and other Czech landscape painters.
The exhibition will be accompanied by a representative publication mapping the life of Josef Doubrava, with an emphasis on his love for art and his collaboration with the painter František Urban on the planning of the church in Grunt (in the Kolín district). Using available sources, the publication will also map the fate of Doubrava’s collection during the dramatic years of 1936-1963. The publication will also contain a list of all the paintings, drawings, and graphics available in the collection of the Gallery of Modern Art in Hradec Králové.
