Auction 84th, Lot 47 Excellent from an artistic point of view, and uniquely appearing on the art market, Emil Filla's The Reader represents the earliest phase of his painting career. Just after the turn of the century Filla got a job in Brno, where he lived with his parents, and gradually focused his interest on literature and fine arts. From 1901 he enrolled as a long distance student of the Imperial and Royal Czech Technical University and subsequently headed to the Prague Academy. His early works were based on the knowledge of older examples, but showed his own, by then quite modern, and confidently expressed artistic opinion, and above all reflected his own strong artistic personality. In the painting The Reader his extraordinary talent is evident from the way he brilliantly captured, with simple and firmly placed strokes, the depicted man absorbed in a small red book. The perfect choice of colours and their shades makes this painting one of the most impressive, even compared with portraits he created after 1905. It is rare proof of the nascent talent of Emila Filla and at the same time of the influence that the work of Edvard Munch had on Czech fine art. Despite the author's dating of 1902 in the lower right corner of the canvas, it is likely that the painting was created later, probably between 1905-1907, and was antedated by the artist. The work comes from a respected First Republic collection. The authenticity of the work was verified by the Filla Foundation and the painting will be listed in the list of works prepared by prof. V. Lahoda, CSc. Assesed during consultations by prof. J. Zemina and PhDr. R. Michalová, PhD. A restoration report by ak. mal. T. Berger is attached, as well as an expertise by PhDr. K. Srp: "[...] It's a dense, colourful painting, showing the favorite position of a reader, sitting melancholically, dreamily over a book, looking as if his eyes are closed and he is falling asleep over it. A strong motif is the reader's right hand, with which he is supporting his chin. The painting has strong expressive values, Filla even dared to work with shades of red, on the one hand the red cover of the book, and on the other hand the red table top. [...] “.