View of Prague from the West (4 sections)

Prague as the capital of the Kingdom of Bohemia is one of the most frequent themes in Czech graphic arts of the first half of the 19th century. Series of prospects, offering general or partial views of the Bohemian metropolis, form a major body of Vincenc Morstadt’s output. The panoramic View of Prague from the West, consisting of four parts, is one of his few vedute executed in the technique of litography. Equally exceptional is the painterly character of the print, rendered in a soft drawing style using lithographic chalk and enhanced by the large expanse of vegetation covering the Petřín Hill in the foreground animated by figures. The stone emblem of the Kingdom of Bohemia featuring the heraldic lion, incorporated into the first sheet, manifests Morstadt’s intention to imbue this work - a picture of Prague as the „caput regni“ - with greater patriotic significance. The distant eastern horizon documents the city’s gradual expansion from the constraints of its gradually disappearing fortified walls. The work was probably produced in the workshop of Antonín Machek.