Oil on canvas, signed l.d. "M. Vrbová"
Dimensions in frame: 70x53 cm (61x44 cm)
Miloslava Vrbova-Štefková (Žinkovy 1909 - Freudenstadt 1991) - Czech painter; after graduating from a grammar school in Pilsen, she studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague from 1932 to 1938, as a pupil of Max Švabynský. From 1937 to 1938 she was in Paris, where she was still educated at the Académie des Beaux-Arts under Prof. František Kupka. After returning home, she had her first exhibition in Brno in 1940. From 1942 she lived in Prague; that year she showed her works here in a solo exhibition "Paris." In the post-war years she painted mainly paintings on the theme of dance, classical ballet. She found motifs for them at the Prague ballet school and in the practice rooms of the Prague National Theater. In 1951 she staged an entire series of Swan Lake paintings, which still adorn the halls of the Prague theater. Between 1952 and 1962 she had numerous shows and solo exhibitions in the country, including in Prague, Karlovy Vary, Mariánské Lázně and Pilsen. From 1964 she lived in Germany and successfully exhibited in Munich, Cologne, Stuttgart, as well as Vienna, Salzburg, Lucerne and Zurich. In 1969 she opened her own gallery in Obersdorf, and had exhibitions in Barcelona and Montreal. She was a highly regarded portraitist; in the 1970s she traveled to the US to paint portraits of President Ronald Reagan's family. In addition to her favorite dancers, ballet scenes and portraits, she also painted landscapes and urban motifs of Prague, religious scenes (the Crucifixion in the church in Žinkov), still lifes and flowers. Her paintings show a fascination with the art of E. Degas and inspiration drawn from the paintings of the French Post-Impressionists.
