What can “cause” the discovery of a suitcase forgotten for decades? For example, the rediscovery of a nobleman-a photographer who was actively interested in photography for most of his life, whose work is on the level of many other artists at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries and yet was more or less unknown until 1999. We cordially invite you to visit the exhibition of Count Karel Chotek’s unique photographs at Areacreativa42, which will be held from May 17 to June 22, 2025.
Karel (Carl) Chotek and his life:
The noble family of Chotek was one of the oldest aristocratic families in the Czech lands. Its members held important state positions. Karel Chotek, the grandfather of the nobleman-photographer Karel Chotek, held several high offices, was even the last supreme purgrave of the Czech kingdom in 1826-1843, and during his time as an Austrian official he contributed to the modernization of the Czech lands. He also participated in the Napoleonic wars and, as governor, contributed significantly to the development of the Tyrol, Trieste, and Istria. The photographer’s great-uncle, Bohuslav, was also an important diplomat in the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
Karl’s father was Anton Count Chotek (1822-1883), Count of Chotek and Vojnin, who married Olga von Moltke (1832-1906). Their son was also systematically prepared for a diplomatic career. After studying at the gymnasium in Litoměřice, he enrolled at the University of Vienna, particularly at the Faculty of Law and Politics. After successfully completing his university studies, he became a diplomat, but held only lower diplomatic posts. He finally ended his career in the civil service of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy in 1883, after the death of his father, to devote himself to the administration of the family estate, particularly the castle and land at Velké Březno.
Despite his concern for the family estate, Karel Chotek gained more time for his hobbies after leaving diplomacy; for example, he was a member of the Geographical Society of Munich. Above all, however, he devoted himself to photography. According to some surviving photographs, he began this hobby around 1885, when he married Adelheide Hohenlohe-Langenburg, who became a frequent subject of his photographic interest. Three children were born to the couple: a boy, Karel (born 1887), a middle daughter, Antoinette (1888-1910), and the youngest, Ada (1890-1939). Karel Chotek loved to photograph them as well.
The last male holder of the Chotek surname was son Karel, who declared his German nationality before World War II and was displaced from Bohemia in 1945. He died in January 1970 in a workhouse in Bavaria.
Karel Chotek’s work
Karel Chotek’s photography hobby was not widely known until 1999. Although the library of the castle in Velké Březno kept specialized photographic magazines from the late 19th and 20th centuries and some photographs, it was unclear whether Count Chotek was the author. In 1999, however, a package with glass negatives of various sizes and a machine for projecting the photographs was discovered in the attic of the former bourgeois school in Velké Březno. The images obtained from the negatives demonstrate the nobleman’s great interest in photographing his family and the events around him.
Two years later, in January 2001 to be precise, several bulky suitcases with photographs were found in Líčkov Castle, which had arrived here around 1962, when Velké Březno Castle became a pioneer hostel for a time. The contents of the suitcases also included images by other photographers, including photographic business cards, but the author of most of the photos is Karel Chotek.
The largest number of photographs taken by Count Chotek are now in the collections of the National Heritage Institute in Ústí nad Labem, which is part of the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic. A large collection of photographs is kept at the Prague Regional State Archives However, Karel Chotek’s photographs are found in various collections and have not been treated in the past, mainly because the aristocracy was considered a relic during the communist regime. The Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague also has several photographs in its collection.
The aristocrat devoted himself to photography for nearly 30 years, and during this time he gradually rose from a dozen amateur photographers capturing only his family to a photographer of the highest caliber. His deep interest in photography is evidenced by his long membership in the famous Vienna Camera Club. He had been a member since at least 1891, when the club still used the old name Club der Amateur-Photographen in Wien, and remained a member until 1914. He received several diplomas for his photographs, which he presented at various exhibitions; in 1896, for example, he won a prize at the Fourth International Exhibition of the Gesellschaft zur Förderung Amateur-Photographie in Hamburg. Several images were reproduced in contemporary magazines during the nobleman’s lifetime.
Karel Chotek’s photographic work can be divided into three major units. Of course, the surviving photographs mostly depict members of his family, his children, his wife, his mother Olga or his cousin Sophie Chotek von Chotkowa, future wife of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Este.
However, while in the early days of photography of the nobleman were descriptive images, before 1900 family members are often depicted in positions that corresponded to the artistic criteria of the time. The resulting photographs were then made using specific techniques: gum bichromate and charcoal printing and other techniques.
The second area of photographic interest is the surroundings of Velké Březno Castle, where Karel Chotek gradually moved from static documentation of some sacred monuments not only in Velké Březno to capturing the lives of people from poor social classes. Some of these images were published in the trade press, for example in the Wiener Photographische Blätter magazine of 1897 Count Chotek’s photograph of a woman milking cattle near the Elbe River near Velké Březno was published. The shot evokes some of the paintings of realists, such as Frenchman Jean-Francois Millet. The third, more comprehensive series presented in this exhibition consists of images of his travels abroad, alone or with his family. After 1900, for example, he repeatedly documented fishermen in the Netherlands, a favorite destination not only for noble families who went there for leisure, but also for many artistic photographers. Similar shots of fishermen like Karel Chotek’s were taken here at the same time, or even shortly before, by Alfred Stieglitz, James Craig Annan or Heinrich Kühn, now world-renowned photographers. It is very likely that Karel Chotek was very familiar with the work of the first two photographers in particular, since the images of both of them were often reproduced in the photographic magazines of the time.Heinrich Kühn, like Karel Chotek, was a member of the Vienna Camera Club.
In the case of the photographs that Karel Chotek took in Italy, some of them from the territory of South Tyrol, which at the time was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, these are mostly topographical images. However, even during “Italian” travels – of which Chotek undertook several from at least 1895 – shots were taken with which the nobleman presented himself at art photography exhibitions. A photograph taken in the resort town of Nervi, for example, was published under the title An der Riviera in 1895 in the magazine Wiener Photographische Blätter. In contrast, a portrait of his father Spiridion, for example, was taken in Merano three years later, which Karel Chotek signed and presented with the same care as he did for other photographs intended for exhibitions.
For some images we can only surmise whether the nobleman intended to work them with one of the specific techniques mentioned above, which gave them a dreamlike, blurred appearance typical of pictorialism. In fact, only the original, perfectly sharp negatives have been preserved of them, while the positive prints have disappeared.
The exhibition The Italian Travels of a Blue-Blooded Photographer
The exhibition at Areacreativa42 gallery will open on Saturday, May 17 at 4 p.m. and will feature mainly local, Italian and South Tyrolean photographs, but also artistic photographs that the nobleman has presented at exhibitions. Beer from the Velké Březno brewery, which belongs to the Heineken company, will be tapped at the opening. Karel Chotek was familiar with the Velké Březno brewery and photographed its workers at work.
Exhibition dates: May 17 to June 22, 2025
Opening hours: Sundays 10:30 a.m. to noon and 3:30 p.m. to 6 p.m.
(other days and times by appointment: +39 3351227609 / info@creativa42.com)
The exhibition is curated by Jan Vaca and Jiří Preclík
The exhibition Karel Chotek. The Italian Travels of a Blue-blooded Photographer is produced by Karin Reisová, Areacreativa42 and Centro Ceco Milano, with the contribution of the Regional Museum of Ústí nad Labem, Prague Regional State Archives, Prague Museum of Decorative Arts, National Heritage Institute of Ústí nad Labem and City of Rivarolo Canavese, under the patronage of the Piedmont Region, Metropolitan City of Turin and Consulate General of the Czech Republic in Milan.
