Man from Podskalí (Boatman)

In the early 20th century, Bartoněk created a collection of small canvases depicting the typical figures of Prague streets thus making the portraits of “street workers”: an imperial and royal administrative servant, a tinker, a street violinist, a wooden spoon vendor, a fish vendor, and a pretzel vendor. The National Gallery collection includes the Man from Podskalí (Boatman) - a resident of Podskalí, the original settlement on the right riverbank of the Vltava below the Vyšehrad rock. The settlement inhabitants made their living on timber floating, ice-breaking, and quarrying sand from the riverbed.