Murals

Biedermeier rooms with murals by Navrátil in Vávra’s House
The four rooms on the first floor are the remnants of the impressive 1847 decorations created by Josef Navrátil for the then owner of the so-called Vávra’s House, rich Prague-based miller Václav Michalovic.

Photo for illustration

Standing out against the background of the ornamentally framed walls in the first room (so-called „Green Saloon") is a glazed-tile stove, by coincidence decorated with a figure of Mercury, the patron of postal services.

The richly ornamental murals in the next three joint rooms are the highlights of the house. The smaller room between the two larger ones displays elaborate decorations with flower motifs. The walls of the right-hand room (so-called „Theatre Saloon") are divided into framed fields with rocailles, or shell-shaped ornamentation portraying scenes from Czech and foreign theatre plays, used by the author to create the atmosphere of a Rococo stage. Navrátil used one of the thirteen rocailles for his own portrait; a still life with fruit, much valued by professionals, is painted above the entrance door. Romanticism of the first half of the 19th century and the fashion of so-called „Travel Saloons" is well reflected in the room on the left-hand side, which originally served as a dining room.

The eight tempera paintings covering its walls present stylized scenes from major tourist destinations in the Austrian monarchy. Josef Navrátil (1798-1865), the author of the ornamental decorations in Vávra's House representing the best preserved 19th century mural paintings in Prague's town houses, was a famous painter and author of murals and other ornamentation in the Liběchov, Zákupy and Ploskovice chateaux and other buildings. Further, until then unknown, mural paintings by Navrátil have recently been uncovered in the Vladislav and Spanish Halls at Prague Castle restored by his studio back in the 19th century. Navrátil's paintings are represented in 19th-century painting collections hosted by a number of galleries including Prague's National Gallery.