# New York Public Library

Time for something more urban! Tavík František Šimon was an influential
Czech printmaker and painter. Largely ignored during the Communist era
in Czechoslovakia, his work has received greater attention in recent
years.

He studied art at the Academy of Prague. After his studies were
completed, Simon resided in both Paris and Prague. Many of his most
notable images are of Prague, New York, and Paris, but also include
portraiture, self-portraiture, and images of the Czech and Slovak
countryside. Šimon's style was strongly influenced by the French
Impressionists and, perhaps through them,by Japanese printmaking
techniques, in particular color aquatints with soft ground etching.
Šimon was also a master of the mezzotint but completed very few prints
in this difficult medium, most of them being female nudes in subtle
tones of black.

He was 49 years old when he undertook the journey of his lifetime,
sailing literally around the world departing Cherbourg in September 1926
and travelling through the USA, crossing the newly built Panama Canal to
sail the Pacific to the Far East and then back home to Europe via Ceylon
and the middle East. Arriving in New York, he wrote, "The ship's
orchestra was playing as we slowly approached the port of New York City
in the morning.In the distance we could see the outlines of skyscrapers
drowning in a silver haze then, as we came closer, rising and standing,
etched against the shimmering background of the rising sun. A shiver
went up and down my spine as we entered the huge harbor whose backdrop
of slim buildings was interspersed with the rising smoke from
factories."