"Self-portrait in the circles of smoke": self-fashioning of the modern artist as a smoker in the Czech art at the turn of the 19th and 20th century

The topic of this Diploma Thesis is the representation of an artist as a smoker in the Czech Art at the turn of the 19th and 20th century. The motive is studied in the works of artists of the 1890s generation and the early avant-garde (Osma, Skupina výtvarných umělců), with the focus on the iconography of a smoker in art as well as the cultural history of smoking. Apart from paintings and graphics it uses other visual sources such as portrait photographs, caricatures published in contemporary newspapers and posters. The Thesis looks for a wider tradition in the European art and maps specific types of artist-smoker for whom cigarette, pipe or cigar is a part of his personal stylization. The first part concentrates on the early usage of the motive in the baroque painting and in the 19th century as such. The next part focuses on self-fashioning of modern artists characterized by their definition against social conventions. The attribute of smoking plays a role of a symbol of bohemian Iife, dandy astuteness, neurasthenic decadent, social or artistic revolt or emancipation of female-artists. The last part deals with the relationship of smoking to the actual art production of modern artists. Smoking is a metaphor for creativity of the symbolist poet or painter who draws the inspiration from his subjective..