Artus Scheiner (1863-1938)

Illustration from "Vo lakomy selce"


Illustration from "Matysek a wizard"


Illustration from Karel Jaromír Erben- Zlatovláska, Princess Goldie


Artus Scheiner - Illustration from "Vo haltravsky meluzine"


Illustration from "Kunifer"


Illustration for Czech National Fairy Tale, from collection by Bozena Nemcova, 1913


Artus Scheiner - Illustration for Czech National Fairy Tale, from collection by Bozena Nemcova, 1913


Artus Scheiner - Robbers of the Enchanted Forest


Illustration from Karel Jaromir Erben's "Goldilocks and Other Czech Fairy Tales"


Jirka With A Goat


Illustration for Czech National Fairy Tale, from collection by Bozena Nemcova, 1913


Illustration from T. E. Tisovský - King Mouselet And Prince Youth - The Bold Dwarfs´Adventures, 1905


Illustration from "Rozum a Stesti"


Illustration from J. S. Kubín´s Under Command Of Magic. 1920's


Illustration from "Tri zlate vlasy deda Vseveda"


Illustration from J. Š. Kubín´s Under Command Of Magic, 1920's

Illustration from "Fairy Tales For Adults" written by Jean Qui Rit



Illustration from The Magical Gate, 1932
Removal of the Trolls, before 1938


A somewhat awkwardly translated biography on the artist can be found at Wikipedia.

Image sources include, Wikimedia Commons, is.muni and 50 Watts.

Josef Vachal (1884 - 1969)

A Walpurgis Night's Dream, 1914


Elementary Plan of Passions and Instincts


Decorations for Czech Puppets


Incubus (Succubus), 1907


Temptation of Saint Anthony


Satanic Invocation, 1909


Samiel on Sonnberg


Demon Heads


Alchemist, 1910





Revolution, 1928


The Cloaca of the Street, 1910





Astarte's Mass, 1907


Sabbath, 1911


Dead Man's Dream, 1918


Messenger, 1915


Josef Belial, illustration from "The Devil's Garden," 1924


Moorland Demon, 1932

"Josef Váchal (September 23, 1884 in Milavče near Domažlice – May 10, 1969 in Studeňany) was a Czech writer, painter, printmaker and book-printer.

Váchal was the son of Josef Aleš-Lyžec and Anna Váchalová - his parents never married. He was brought up by his grandparents, Jan Aleš and Jana Alešová, in the southern Bohemian town of Písek, where he entered grammar school but left it prematurely. In 1898 Váchal moved to Prague, where he studied bookbinding and befriended his father's cousin, the painter Mikoláš Aleš. He was influenced by Art Nouveau during that time.

In 1900 he wrote his first poems, by 1903 he joined the Prague Theosophy Society, in 1904 he entered the Painter School and later became a respected painter and graphic designer. In 1910 Váchal published his first two books. Between January 1912 and January 1913 he enjoyed a short but intense friendship with the mystical Catholic writer Jakub Deml. In March 1913, Váchal married Máša Pešulová, and began a friendship with the collector J. Portman; Portman's house Portmoneum is now the Váchal Museum in Litomyšl.

From 1916 to 1918 Váchal served as a soldier on the Italian front. During 1940, expressing resistance against Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia, he moved from Prague to the village of Studeňany ('tusculum' or 'exile'). After the communist revolution of 1948 in Czechoslovakia, he became more socially and culturally isolated and his works were rarely seen in public. He lived in obscurity on the family estate of his partner, Anna Macková, in Studeňany. Even with the coming of Prague Spring in the late 1960s his situation didn’t significantly change. He was, however, awarded the state title of Meritorious Artist (Zasloužilý umělec) shortly before his death in 1969. He is buried in the village of Radim near Jičín, eastern Bohemia." - quote source


Artworks found at www.vachal.cz, Album of the Magic Search Exhibit. A video showcasing the entirety of a recently published book of Vachal's art can be viewed here.

Parade of Monsters, 1560-1600

No artist is attached to this series of etchings in the Italian school/style dated from 1560-1600.  Artworks found at The British Museum.

Ottaviano Dandini - Witches At A Black Mass, 18th Century

Artwork found at Soethby's.

William Holbrook Beard - The Witches Convention, 1876

Artwork found at Soethby's.

See more works by William Holbrook Beard in this previous post.

Gaston Hoffmann (1883-1977)

Le roman fantastique, 1930

Temptation of Saint Anthony, 1936

Artworks found at Opus-Mirabilis and Antic Store.

Ludwig Hesshaimer (1872 - 1956)

Idiocy, 1925-30

Cocaine, 1925-30

Madhouse, 1925-30

Paranoia, 1925-30


The World War, A Dance of Death, Goethe - "And when mortals fall silent in their torment, A god granted me the power of expressing my suffering."1921


Spirits of the Machine - "Death has freed the spirits of the machines, each spitting steel and fire with horrible delight,"


The Mountain of Skulls - "Too much suffering pervades the world. Death has grown tired of killing."


Power Corrupted - "Death drips poison into the heart of Power, and the night of evil descends on mankind."


Light and Love Conquer - "And behold, several thousand little children embrace belief in the future, Light and Love are victorious!"


Black Spirits - "On bloody steeds Death sends the black spirits into the land, hatred sets the world ablaze!"

The End - "Life cries out, Death is Dead!! "Procreation" is the cosmos's highest offering!"

Horsemen of the Apocalypse - "And over man and beast and earth the horsemen of the apocalypse spread unspeakable horrors."

Ancient Battle - "Death awakes the furies of war, the people are gripped like lightning and wind."


 "I call these pages a Dance of Death. They are memories of an endless series of them that my mind conjured up in sleepless nights of experiences that weigh heavily on my heart and mind. I dipped my pen in my heart's blood and filled these pages with my love. The horrors that shook me in the fearful hours of the war and the hope that did not leave me, not even in my darkest hours, these I wrote down here as I felt them.

 My work was created in dark times. Painful suffering often paralyzed my work. The day filled me with heavy apprehension; only the night was mine, that wonderful peace of the silent night. I thank her for allowing me to put into art what tortured me to the breaking point in the years of the war.

At the terrible end of the war, in those months of deep melancholy, my work began to take form. Pages fell into place and the work took on a finalized, cyclical form. The hope of the reconciliation of man, the victory of life over death, reached across the pages for each other from the first to the last and allowed me to complete my difficult journey."

Written on New Year's Eve in the year 1920.

Vienna Ludwig Hesshaimer


"In Hesshaimer's foreward to "The World War, A Dance of Death" he explains how the creation of this portfolio, completed over a span of several years, was a form of catharsis and a way for him to cope with nightmares and waking memories of his time served in the war.  The constant artillery barrages, gruesome deaths, and deplorable conditions of World War 1 gave rise to a condition among soldiers known as "shell shock." Soldiers reported symptons, such as tremors, amnesia, headaches, and hypersensitivity to noise, without exhibiting wounds.

We cannot know for sure whether Hesshaimer himself suffered from shell shock, but the nightmares and melancholy he described suggest that he might have." quote source

Artworks found at Ketterer Kunst

Hanus Folkman (1876 - 1936)

Three Swords, early 20th C

Eternal Youth, Life Without End, early 20th C


Animal Norka, early 20th C

Titles are crude translations from the original Czech titles found somewhere in the labyrinth of this site.

Hanus Folkman was a Czech artist largely known for his work in the puppet theater. While his work has proven difficult to find online, there is one example of his puppets at the bottom of this article covering Czech Puppets.

 A brief biography on the artist can be viewed here.