František Šindelář - Two Nude Girls

• Title: Two Nude Girls
• Artist: František Šindelář (1887-1947)
• Date: 1920
• Medium: Oil on cardboard
• Dimensions: 30 x 24 cm
• Location: Private collection, unknown location
• Photo credit: Dorotheum, Wien, Austria

František Šindelář's painting "Two Nude Girls" depicts two girls reclining on the grass in the forest near what seems to be a brook. It most probably is a late Spring setting in the Czech countryside that Šindelář’s work often represents.

The style is a late impressionistic style with vivd colors. The two girls are looking at the painter in a timid, subdued way. The setting and the young age of the characters leads the viewer to think those may be fantasy, forest nymphs. Forest nymphs are minor nature deities in Greek mythology, often depicted as a beautiful young woman who embodies the spirit of the forest. They are guardians of the woods and are associated with the beauty and vitality of nature, sometimes appearing to travelers in secluded areas.

František Šindelář (born in 1887 in Čimelice and died in 1947 in Moravské Budějovice) was a Czech painter and educator whose work combined attentive observation of landscape, figure and travel-inspired motifs. As a teacher in Moravské Budějovice, he influenced younger generations of artists while sustaining his own studio practice; his oeuvre ranges from quiet figural studies such as "A Sitting Girl" or the painting shown here "Two Nude Girls" to broad landscape compositions.