Auction 84th, Lot 37 This dramatic, perfectly constructed scene, is a brilliant and highly representative work, which concentrates all the specifics of the author's most appreciated period.  The interwar years were a happy time for the painter, when he devoted himself fully to work and spent pleasant moments in the countryside with his family. Čapek liked forests, mushroom-picking and walks, but he especially enjoyed hunts, which he regularly visited either as an active participant or an enthusiastic spectator. It is therefore not surprising that the motif of hunters has penetrated into his work; he began to devote himself to it in 1934. After the mid-30's, optimistic scenes full of the naive joy of daily life were overshadowed by anxious foreboding of times to come. This expressively conceived canvas perfectly synthesizes this rebirth, which took place in the whole of society, but especially in the author's soul. The image of the stricken bird represents the consciousness of the wounds that had began to destroy freedom in the world and to threaten the very existence of humans. Čapek embodied this feeling with the help of sharp diagonals, unrestrained brush strokes and contrasting tones of the red-black menacing skies. In a completely breathtaking composition the stricken crow falls to the ground, unable to reverse its fate. Čapek dedicated most of the canvas to the crow to further support the exciting moment during which the viewer literally identifies himself with the falling animal. He placed the small figure of the hunter, who is characteristically free of any descriptive detail, in opposition and then visually recorded the encounter through a shot in the opposite direction, which further underlines the complex dynamics of the scene. Futuristic tendencies, celebrating movement, speed and progress, were consciously used in the whole composition, and in the sharply drawn shapes of the bird we can see forms remarkably similar to fighter planes. Čapek described in his own words the inspiration for the painting The Shot Crow: "I remember Aleš and the folk song, I hear the blow of a hunter's rifle and I also feel the endless abyss into which the shot bird falls, the infinity of death."The work, which is a great example of Čapek's mastery, will also attract attention due to its provenance, originally belonging to the excellent collection of JUDr. Vladimír Kouřil in Ostrava, now coming from a top foreign collection. The painting was exhibited in 1936 in the Municipal House at the exhibition of the members of the Umělecká beseda (11/12 1936 to 31/1 1937, cat. no. 20). The authenticity is evidenced by a period photograph of the painting with confirmation of authenticity by Josef Čapek. The canvas is reproduced in the author's monograph (Josef Čapek, no. 38, published by Melantrich, Prague 1937). Assesed during consultations by prof. J. Zemina and PhDr. K. Srp. Expertise by PhDr. P. Pečinková, Csc. attached.