Roztocka Alley (Roztocká alej)

Arnošt Hofbauer

1910

Color woodcut

Minneapolis Institute of Art

A group of people stroll along a tree-lined path under a canopy of green and blue leaves. The scene is rendered in a soft, impressionistic style with a light palette. The gauzy atmosphere suggests an Impressionist painting, but this work by Arnošt Hofbauer is a woodcut. It satisfies two concerns facing Czech artists around 1910: how to reflect the national culture and be modern. While the woodcut medium harks back to the Slavic tradition of craft work, a complicated woodcut depicting modern life would have been quite new. Roztocka Alley was in Hofbauer’s hometown of Prague, still one of the world’s most beautiful cities in which to stroll. The diluted colors, dominated by shades of violet, add to the scene’s buoyant mood. Hofbauer invented his red chop mark, modeled on the Japanese signature stam