Josef Ullmann ( June 13, 1870 Nekmíř [1] - May 31, 1922 Prague-Vinohrady [2] ) was a Czech painter - landscape painter, disciple of Julius Mařák at the Academy of Painting in Prague .

Josef Ullmann was born in 1870 in the village of Nekmíř in the Pilsen region of Czechoslavakia. His father Josef Ullmann died prematurely and the family moved to Pilsen . The young Ullmann in Pilsen graduated from four classes of a real grammar school and subsequently started working in a Škoda factory as a clerk. His drawing experiments were noticed by the director of the company and on his recommendation Ullmann left for Munich in 1894 .

In Munich he probably studied with professor August Fink (1846 - 1916), who ran a landscape studio at the Royal Academy of Arts in Munich from 1889 to 1905. For a relatively long time, Josef Ullmann was influenced by both his artistic expression and his choice of landscape themes. He likely studied with Professor Johann Herterich (1843 - 1905), who is known for his figural work. The third mentioned teacher, B. Schmiedt (Kubert, 1986), is not traceable.

For unknown reasons, he said goodbye to Munich and from 1897 he became a pupil of the Prague Academy of Painting. First, Ullmann joined professoosef M. Pirner and from 1898 he enrolled in the landscape school of Julius Mařák. In 1899 he successfully graduated from the Prague Academy. Karel Rélink wrote memories of the life of a Prague goddess in the "Monaco" restaurant circuit, in which J. Ullmann also participated as a student, in the book (first edition 1928).

Since 1900 , Ullmann's paintings have been repeatedly reproduced in Golden Prague and other magazines. From 1902 , his paintings began to appear regularly at exhibitions organized by Krasoumná jednota , Umělecká beseda and Jednota výtvarných výtvarných. In 1905 he was chosen among the authors representing Czech fine art at the IX international exhibition in Munich. From 1905 to 1922 he was a member of the Association of Fine Artists Mánes . From 1907 he was a corresponding member of the Vienna Hagebund.

In 1911 , Ullmann became a participant in the so-called Boronali affair, reference to a painting supposedly done by a donkey with a brush tied to its tail, it was exhibited at a famous Paris salon as the work of a new painter named Joachim Raphaël Boronali.)

In the same year Josef Ulmann received the 3rd prize of the Czech Academy of Sciences and Arts. In the following years, Ullmann began to move away from social life and on May 31, 1922, he died of stomach cancer.
He was buried in the Vinohrady cemetery .

J. Ullmann's initial work is influenced by the artistic opinion of the Munich Academy professor A. Fink (eg Early Spring , Early Spring and Pond with Reeds) and Mařák's school (eg U Lochovic , V Březině and Tůňka ). In the following years, Ullmann gradually released his handwriting and worked more with dynamic brush touches (eg after the rain ). In some paintings, it achieves the effect of impressionist painting with an emphasis on light and suppression of space ( Village houses ).

In other paintings faithful to their training, spatial vision is preserved, but the painting as a whole achieves impressionist relaxation (eg Autumn Impressions and Winter ). Contemporary critics, especially K. Čapek and partly KB Mádl , pointed to the dark sides of his work, which he presented collectively at the U Topiče exhibition in 1908.

A temporary way out of the creative crisis was a gradual shift to the Impressionist fresh colors. Gradually, however, the tried and tested themes are repeated in his paintings. The romantic, or perhaps symbolist, theme of a carriage with a carriage, breaking into an uncomfortable muddy landscape and heading for distant dilapidated houses, was already too accommodating to the bad taste of the time.
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
Pardubice, June 1906
Jicin, November 1907
Prague, Topic's Salon, November - December, 1908 (44 paintings)
Mladá Boleslav, May 1914
Prague, Rubeš Gallery, December 1914
Prague, Rubeš Gallery, 1921
Prague, Central Bohemian Gallery, July - Sep. 1986 (together with S. Lolk, 33 paintings)
Golčův Jeníkov, Goltz Fortress, April - June 2012 with O. Bubeníček, 59 paintings)

Source:
Wikipedia, Google Translation

Painter Josef Ullmann belongs to the more interesting ones from "Marákovce". He was born in 1870 in Nekmír in the Pilsen region of the Czech Republic. Josef Ullmann first began his studies at Munich Academy from where he moved to Prague after three years, where he completed his studies.

He started in Prague in the studio of Max Pirner and later studied in Marák's landscape studio, in the same year as Antonín Slavícek. Ullmann was initially influenced by Marák's work.

Around 1910, he mastered the impressionist technique of colored spots.