From the 1870s onwards, Leoš Janáček (1854–1928) began to win regional fame and then world fame. Understandably, as a result he caught the attention of professional photographers and photographic studios, as well as amateur camera enthusiasts. A rich photo documentation came into being during the composer’s life, and thanks to the work of curators of the Janáček Archive in the Moravian Museum over several generations, this has been gathered into collections, with the photographs in the composer’s own effects forming the core. The exhibition presents photographs associated with the city of Brno, besides portraits specifically composed in Brno studios.

Janáček came to Brno at the age of eleven and remained faithful to it until death. It is not at all strange, then, that a photo collection should exist which preserves that bond. Here one finds photos from 1881 of the affianced Janáček couple in the Rafael studio, and a number of group photos where we see the composer in the company of Brno artists, friends and pupils. Among the individuals photographed with Janáček, there is the conductor of the Prague premiere of Jenůfa, Karel Kovařovic (1862–1920), in front of the Hotel Slavia, when the Prague National Theatre Orchestra paid a visit to Brno in June 1917. Of the amateur photos taken by Janáček’s pupils František Rybka (1895–1970) and Mirko Hanák (1891–1972), probably those that give the most direct impressions of the master were taken in the garden beside the house in Smetana Street in the company of four-legged friends, the pup Čert and bitch Čipera, in 1910, 1926 and 1927. It is still an open question whether photographs exist of Janáček at certain notable events, including the Czechoslovak Exhibition of Contemporary Culture in 1928, which the composer to all appearances visited three times (10., 25., 29. 6. 1928), and the laying of the foundation stone in the Law Faculty of Masaryk University on 9. 6. 1928, where Janáček’s Chorus Composed for the Occasion of the Laying of the Foundation Stone was performed. A great many photos of diverse kinds were preserved from this occasion, and even a film. Janáček himself recalls this occasion: “… I was standing five steps away from the president. “High” society was round me; I was concealed by palm and laurel trees and able to follow everything…” Alas, he hid himself so completely behind the palm that one cannot see him on any surviving photo or on the film. And this despite the fact that on that day allegedly “someone was photographing me like a lunatic”. But even without those shots, the exhibition offers a coherent set of photographs documenting the life of one of the most important 20th century composers in his home town, Brno.