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 81.66, 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 72.76, Anton Raphael Mengs is the 2nd most famous Czech Painter.  His biography has been translated into 46 different languages.

Anton Raphael Mengs (12 March 1728 – 29 June 1779) was a German Neoclassical painter.

3. František Kupka (1871 - 1957)

With an HPI of 69.43, 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 65.31, 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. Anna Chromý (1940 - 2021)

With an HPI of 63.10, Anna Chromý is the 5th 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.

6. Emil Orlík (1870 - 1932)

With an HPI of 62.33, Emil Orlík is the 6th most famous Czech Painter.  His biography has been translated into 24 different languages.

Emil Orlík (21 July 1870 – 28 September 1932) was a Czech painter, etcher and lithographer. He and lived and worked in Prague, Austria and Germany.

7. Georg Flegel (1566 - 1638)

With an HPI of 61.65, Georg Flegel is the 7th most famous Czech Painter.  His biography has been translated into 16 different languages.

Georg Flegel (1566 – 23 March 1638) was a German painter, best known for his still-life works.

8. Toyen (1902 - 1980)

With an HPI of 61.64, Toyen is the 8th 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.

9. Gabriel von Max (1840 - 1915)

With an HPI of 60.51, Gabriel von Max is the 9th 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.

10. Zdeněk Burian (1905 - 1981)

With an HPI of 60.36, Zdeněk Burian is the 10th most famous Czech Painter.  His biography has been translated into 18 different languages.

Zdeněk Michael František Burian (11 February 1905 – 1 July 1981) was a Czech painter, book illustrator and palaeoartist. Burian's artwork played a central role in the development of palaeontological reconstruction and he is regarded as one of the most influential palaeoartists of all time. Burian began his career as an illustrator in the 1920s and became famous in his native Czechoslovakia for his illustrations of novels, mainly adventure novels and classic works. His illustrations of the novel The Mammoth Hunters (1937) by Eduard Štorch gained the attention of the Czech palaeontologist Josef Augusta, who collaborated with Burian as a scientific advisor. Their collaboration resulted in Burian's work being used in a number of books on prehistoric life written by Augusta, culminating in a series of six great illustrated volumes published in 1956–1966, the most famous of which was Prehistoric Animals (1956). After Augusta's death in 1968, Burian worked with numerous other scientists. He continued to produce artwork for further books, as well as for magazines and museums. It is not known precisely how many paintings Burian produced, with estimates ranging between 1000 and 20,000. Between 500 and 800 of his paintings were prehistoric reconstructions. In total, his illustrations were published in over 500 books, out of which approximately two dozen were on prehistory. Many of his paintings have reached an iconic status; they were extensively copied by later artists and influenced conceptions of dinosaurs and how they were depicted in popular culture.