We commemorate this day with a thematic work from our collections, by painter and draftsman Božena Jelínková-Jirásková (1880–1951). She was born in Litomyšl, her father was Alois Jirásek. She studied at the Drawing and Painting School for Ladies with Jakub Schikaneder at the School of Applied Arts, which was one of the first institutions where women could study, after graduating in 1904 she continued privately with Antonín Slavíček.

Božena Jirásková married the writer and translator Hanuš Jelínek, at the end of 1909 they settled in Paris, where Jelínek lectured on the history of Czech literature at the Sorbonne, and where they then stayed repeatedly and for a long time. Božena Jelínková-Jirásková initially focused on flowers and landscapes in her work, especially her homeland, which she missed during her stays in France. In the twenties, she became interested in the city environment as a painter, she captured street genre scenes. From the second half of the 1920s she got to know other regions of France (Bretagne, Provence) and began to deal more with landscape painting. Her work was influenced by Otakar Kubín, a painter settled in Provence, and another inspiration was Paul Cézanne. At the turn of the 1920s and 1930s, the painter turned to a more realistic painting of the Czech landscape and to still lifes. She often depicted her father's birthplace Hronov, where the family had a summer residence, and this foothill town was apparently also the inspiration for the artwork from our art collections called Harvest.

In her later years, Božena Jelínková-Jirásková devoted herself mainly to painting floral still lifes. During her lifetime she was appreciated as a painter, but today she remains rather unknown. The main part of her work is in private collections.