PAINTERS from Czechia

Top 10

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the top 10 most legendary Czech Painters of all time. This list of famous Czech Painters is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity. Visit the rankings page to view the entire list of Czech Painters.

1. Alphonse Mucha (1860 - 1939)

With an HPI of 74.53, Alphonse Mucha is the most famous Czech Painter.  His biography has been translated into 62 different languages on wikipedia.

Alfons Maria Mucha (Czech: [ˈalfons ˈmuxa] ; 24 July 1860 – 14 July 1939), known internationally as Alphonse Mucha, was a Czech painter, illustrator, and graphic artist. Living in Paris during the Art Nouveau period, he was widely known for his distinctly stylized and decorative theatrical posters, particularly those of Sarah Bernhardt. He produced illustrations, advertisements, decorative panels, as well as designs, which became among the best-known images of the period. In the second part of his career, at the age of 57, he returned to his homeland and devoted himself to a series of twenty monumental symbolist canvases known as The Slav Epic, depicting the history of all the Slavic peoples of the world, which he painted between 1912 and 1926. In 1928, on the 10th anniversary of the independence of Czechoslovakia, he presented the series to the Czech nation. He considered it his most important work.

2. Anton Raphael Mengs (1728 - 1779)

With an HPI of 66.80, Anton Raphael Mengs is the 2nd most famous Czech Painter.  His biography has been translated into 45 different languages.

Anton Raphael Mengs (12 March 1728 – 29 June 1779) was a German painter, active in Dresden, Rome, and Madrid, who while painting in the Rococo period of the mid-18th century became one of the precursors to Neoclassical painting, which replaced Rococo as the dominant painting style in Europe.

3. František Kupka (1871 - 1957)

With an HPI of 64.61, František Kupka is the 3rd most famous Czech Painter.  His biography has been translated into 35 different languages.

František Kupka (23 September 1871 – 24 June 1957), also known as Frank Kupka or François Kupka, was a Czech painter and graphic artist. He was a pioneer and co-founder of the early phases of the abstract art movement and Orphic Cubism (Orphism). Kupka's abstract works arose from a base of realism, but later evolved into pure abstract art.

4. Wenceslaus Hollar (1607 - 1677)

With an HPI of 58.11, Wenceslaus Hollar is the 4th most famous Czech Painter.  His biography has been translated into 28 different languages.

Wenceslaus Hollar (23 July 1607 – 25 March 1677) was a prolific and accomplished Bohemian graphic artist of the 17th century, who spent much of his life in England. He is known to German speakers as Wenzel Hollar; and to Czech speakers as Václav Hollar (Czech: [ˈvaːtslaf ˈɦolar]). He is particularly noted for his engravings and etchings. He was born in Prague, died in London, and was buried at St Margaret's Church, Westminster.

5. Emil Orlík (1870 - 1932)

With an HPI of 56.62, Emil Orlík is the 5th most famous Czech Painter.  His biography has been translated into 24 different languages.

Emil Orlik (21 July 1870 – 28 September 1932) was a painter, etcher and lithographer. He was born in Prague, which was at that time part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and lived and worked in Prague, Austria and Germany.

6. Karel Škréta (1610 - 1674)

With an HPI of 54.91, Karel Škréta is the 6th most famous Czech Painter.  His biography has been translated into 17 different languages.

Karel Škréta Šotnovský of Závořice (Czech: Karel Škréta Šotnovský ze Závořic; 1610 – 1674) was a portrait painter from Bohemia who worked in the Baroque style. He lived through the Thirty Years' War which caused him some hardships as a Protestant which led him to leave Prague for Saxony then Italy.

7. Toyen (1902 - 1980)

With an HPI of 54.39, Toyen is the 7th most famous Czech Painter.  Her biography has been translated into 20 different languages.

Toyen (born Marie Čermínová; 21 September 1902 – 9 November 1980) was a Czech painter, drafter, and illustrator and a member of the surrealist movement. In 1923, the artist adopted the professional pseudonym Toyen. The name Toyen has been suggested to be derived from the French word 'citoyen,' meaning citizen, but it has also been proposed to be a play on the Czech expression ‘to je on’ (‘it is he’). Toyen favored this gender-neutral mononym (in Czech the family name is gendered, with women's names ending in "ová") and would speak the language in the masculine singular form. Vítězslav Nezval wrote that Toyen "refused... to use the feminine endings" when speaking in the first person.

8. Petr Brandl (1668 - 1735)

With an HPI of 54.30, Petr Brandl is the 8th most famous Czech Painter.  His biography has been translated into 20 different languages.

Petr Brandl (Peter Johannes Brandl or Jan Petr Brandl) (24 October 1668 – 24 September 1735) was a Czech painter of the late Baroque in the bilingual Kingdom of Bohemia. Brandl was the sixth child in a Czech-German family. His father, Michal Brandl, worked as a tailor and was of German ancestry. His mother, Alžběta Hrbková, was Czech from a peasant family in the south Bohemian village of Přestanice (now part of Hlavňovice). Brandl was famous in his time but – due to isolation behind the Iron Curtain – rather forgotten until recently. Brandl employed strong chiaroscuro, areas of heavy impasto and very plastic as well as dramatic figures. According to the Grove Dictionary of Art and other sources, Brandl was apprenticed around 1683–1688 to Kristián Schröder (1655–1702). The National Gallery in Prague, has an entire hall devoted to the artist's works, including "Bust of an Apostle" from some time before 1725. The artist is a distant ancestor of both contemporary Austrian painter Herbert Brandl and contemporary American-Swiss painter Mark Staff Brandl.

9. Anna Chromý (1940 - 2021)

With an HPI of 54.28, Anna Chromý is the 9th most famous Czech Painter.  Her biography has been translated into 20 different languages.

Anna Chromy (18 July 1940 – 18 September 2021) was a Czech-German painter and sculptor. At the end of World War II, Chromy's family was expelled from Czechoslovakia to Vienna, Austria. Her family did not have enough money for her to attend art school however, so only after she married and moved to Paris was it possible. She received her education at the École des Beaux-Arts. It was here she realised an interest in Salvador Dalí and other surrealists, and began using the soft colours of William Turner in her paintings. A life-threatening accident in 1992 meant that Chromy was unable to paint for eight years. She turned her attention to sculpture using bronze and marble as her media.

10. Gabriel von Max (1840 - 1915)

With an HPI of 53.96, Gabriel von Max is the 10th most famous Czech Painter.  His biography has been translated into 19 different languages.

Gabriel Cornelius Ritter von Max (23 August 1840 – 24 November 1915) was a Prague-born Austrian painter, and professor of history painting at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts. He was also a collector of anthropological artifacts.