Kidnapping of a Montenegrin Woman, replica

Čermák visited the Slavonic south twice - for the first time in 1858. Although initially he was to travel with his friend, the physician Dušan Vilém Lambl, he finally set out on his own, via Brno, Slovakia, Budapest and Croatia to Hercegovina, Dalmatia and Montenegro. During his second trip in 1862-1863 he lived in Dubrovnik in Dalmatia; with his pupil Josef Huttary he spent several months in Montenegro as guest of the ruling family. In Montenegro he saw the bloody fighting with the Turks, participating not only with his brush, but also gun in hand. Čermák handled both gun and horse with almost professional skill and was decorated for bravery by the Montenegrin prince Nicola I. Among Čermák’s best-known paintings, in which he expressed highly suggestibly the suffering of the Montenegrins, is this replica painted by Čermák himself after the 1861 original. From Montenegro Čermák returned to Dalmatia. For two years he lived at Mandaljena near Dubrovnik, where he was joined by Mrs.Gallait and her daughters. For Čermák these years spent in work and in Mrs.Gallait’s company were the best in his entire life.