(1858-1934)
Zdenka Braunerová, painter and pioneer of book design, tireless organizer of Czech art life. She repeatedly stayed in France, got inspired by French artists and established contacts with them. First, she was inspired by her future brother-in-law, the writer Élémir Bougres, who introduced her to many masterpieces of France and acquainted her with French artists like Maurice Maeterlinck, Anatole France and others. The famous sculptor Auguste Rodin visited Czechia in 1905 at her invitation. She registered other successes, too: at the women’s exhibition on the Champs Elysées and in 1890 at the Salon on the Champs de Mars. She became, among other things, an important and wellknown patron of notable Czech artists Chittussi, Mrštík, Zeyer, Marten, the painter Joža Uprka, the sculptor František Bílek, and Jan Zrzavý. The latter spoke of her as “…an extraordinary woman, witty, educated, original.” As an independent, creative woman, her lifestyle significantly deviated from the standard of the time, and she established herself as an artist despite the disapproving middle-class morals. Zdenka Braunerová died on 23 May 1934 in Prague and is buried among the nation’s greats at Vyšehrad Cemetery.