Václav Radimský

The most Impressionist of Czech painters, settled near Vernon for nearly thirty years.

Dates1867 — 1946
NationalityCzech
DisciplineLandscape painter
Place of birthKolín, Bohemia

Biography

Trained under Eduard Peithner von Lichtenfels in Vienna and then Eduard Schleich in Munich, he left for France around 1889. He exhibited at the Paris Salon — a prize in 1894 for studies of ferns — and won a medal at the 1900 Exposition Universelle. His plein-air painting centres on reflections in water and shifts of light. He returned to Bohemia in 1918 and was long dismissed at home as an imitator of Monet, before a recent reappraisal.

Giverny

After a spell at Barbizon around 1891 he settled in the Seine valley downstream from Giverny: he bought a former mill, La Bergamotte, at Le Goulet near Vernon, where he worked for more than twenty years. Sources describe him as a friend of Claude Monet; one asserts that Monet allowed him to paint in his garden, a rare favour, but this claim has not been confirmed by an independent source.

Relation with the Hôtel Baudy

Two stays, and the register calls him Austrian because Bohemia is then part of the empire. From 4 October to 19 December 1894, entered as “Etudiant, Autriche (a Kolin)”. Then from 1 to 12 October 1895, “30 ans, Koln, Autriche”. Kolín is indeed his native town.

Principal works