Mikoláš Aleš
Czech illustrator and painter (1852-1913)
Mikoláš Aleš (18 November 1852 – 10 July 1913) was a Czech painter. Aleš is estimated to have had over 5,000 published pictures; he painted for everything from magazines to playing cards to textbooks. His paintings were not publicized too widely outside Bohemia, but many of them are still available, and he is regarded as one of the Czech Republic's greatest artists.
Biography
Aleš was born in Mirotice near Písek, into a relatively rich family that was in debt at the time. He was taught history by his brother František until the latter's death in 1865; he expressed interest in painting at an early age.
In 1879 he married Marina Kailová and moved to Italy where he continued his career in painting. He moved back to Prague to work on the new artwork at the Prague National Theatre along with other notable painters.
Aleš died in Prague at the age of 60.
Legacy
Aleš is probably best known today as being one of the painters (the other being František Ženíšek) that redecorated the famous foyer of the Czech National Theatre. Aleš did gain fame during his lifetime, especially for his architectural artwork, but his paintings were mostly only praised after his death.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 2, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q446948. VIAF identifies the subject as 47006291. The Library of Congress control number is n81076490. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1852, 1913, 1865 and 1879.
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This entry incorporates text from “Mikoláš Aleš” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.