Evening Clouds, from the cycle Evaporations (Erdendunst)

Hermina Laukotová (1853-1931), long neglected for being a Prague-based German, was one of the first women artists in Bohemia to master loose graphic art. She had her first painting lessons in Prague, but learned the basics of graphic techniques while studying in Munich with Doris Raab, daughter of Viennese Professor Johann Leonard Raab, with whom Laukotová also briefly studied later on. She returned to Prague in 1887 and two years later became the first woman artist in Prague to present her graphic artworks at a Society of Fine Arts annual exhibition. Thereafter, her graphic art, especially her etchings, were published in European art magazines, including Die Graphischen Künste. Her work quickly developed from historical painting and naturalist renditions to the advanced symbolism seen in the large cycle Evaporations, which was publicly presented in Prague in 1898-1900.