Children's art competition for UNESCO 24.10.1958

Children's art competition for UNESCO

Czechoslovakia 4.2.1991 – 150th Anniversary of Steamboat Bohemia

Martin from Prague sent me this FDC which commemorates the 150^th Anniversary of the Czechoslovakian Steamboat Bohemia.

 The first steamboat in Bohemia is connected with two gentlemen: J. Andrews and J.J.Ruston. The ceremony during which the steamboat named BOHEMIA was launched and which was presided by J.J.Ruston himself took place in Karlín, Prague, in 1841. The boat was 38,8 m long and 4,9 m wide and it was built in a very modern way using the combination of wood and iron. The steamboat engine was brought from Greenwich. The precise positioning of the engine and masterfully manufactured construction of the boat resulted in an exceptionally low submergion – only 0,42 cm.

When BOHEMIA appeared in Dresden for the first time on 26th May 1841 the local Saxony boats were put of out operation as there was not enough water. BOHEMIA was able to take aboard travellers who were waiting in vain for a Saxony boat. The new steambaot soon became a sensation in Dresden and on the way back it was introduced to the Saxony royal court at Pillnitz Chateau.

BOHEMIA surprised the locals again when to the swimmers’ amazement „the steamboat steered into a narrow shipping channel which was carefully avoided by all swimmers and sailed through it unharmed“ (news from Sächsische Dorfzeitung from 29. 5. 1841). This very well illustrates the masterful design of the steamboat which can still be seen on the original drawing stored in the Technical Museum in Vienna. It has to be said though that the steamboat as it appears in the picture(s) is slightly adjusted conforming the art fashion of that time.

The regular cruise to Dresden took only a day downstream and BOHEMIA was on its route twice a week. The cruise usually did not start in Prague but in Obříství (a village not far from Mělník) as there was not enough water in the Vltava river and people had to use other means of transport to get to Prague from here.

On of the most famous passangers on BOHEMIA was the Danish writer Hans Christian Andersen who travelled on the boat on 31st June 1841 and described the river cruise in the book A Poet's Bazaar.

Thank you Martin.

Ccechoslovakia 5.11.1991 - “Head of Christ”, by El Greco

“Head of Christ”, a painting by El Greco circa 1595. This painting now hangs in the National Gallery at Prague in the Czech Republic.

This stamp is one of a set of three issued on Art on 3.11.1991 at Prague.

El Greco, born Doménikos Theotokópoulos (1541 – 7 April 1614), was a painter, sculptor and architect of the Spanish Renaissance. "El Greco" (The Greek) was a nickname, a reference to his national Greek origin, and the artist normally signed his paintings with his full birth name in Greek letters, Δομήνικος Θεοτοκόπουλος (Doménikos Theotokópoulos), often adding the word Κρής (Krēs, "Cretan").
El Greco was born in Crete, which was at that time part of the Republic of Venice, and the center of Post-Byzantine art. He trained and became a master within that tradition before traveling at age 26 to Venice, as other Greek artists had done.  In 1570 he moved to Rome, where he opened a workshop and executed a series of works. During his stay in Italy, El Greco enriched his style with elements of Mannerism and of the Venetian Renaissance. In 1577, he moved to Toledo, Spain, where he lived and worked until his death. In Toledo, El Greco received several major commissions and produced his best-known paintings.
El Greco's dramatic and expressionistic style was met with puzzlement by his contemporaries but found appreciation in the 20th century. El Greco is regarded as a precursor of both Expressionism and Cubism, while his personality and works were a source of inspiration for poets and writers such as Rainer Maria Rilke and Nikos Kazantzakis. El Greco has been characterized by modern scholars as an artist so individual that he belongs to no conventional school. He is best known for tortuously elongated figures and often fantastic or phantasmagorical pigmentation, marrying Byzantine traditions with those of Western painting.
Thank you My Friend Martin from Prague.