Study of a lying down child for the painting Madonna Adoring the Child

In 1823, František Tkadlík completed a painting called Madonna Adoring the Child that was created as a companion piece to the altar painting of St. John Nepomuk (1819) for the Church of St. Peter and St. Paul in Varnsdorf in North Bohemia. This painting with poetic overtones counts among Tkadlík’s most remarkable works and is, in his creative output, a culmination of a dialogue with the modern European figural religious painting represented primarily by the Nazarenes.