Vágy (Desire) is what we have chosen to call this colourful set of Prihoda watercolours from the late 1920s, and you can see why – they are explicit, daring, varied, and very red. We know nothing of the artist’s personal life during this period, but we do have this revealing painting showing Prihoda in his studio painting a beautiful naked young woman who is demurely avoiding his gaze, while he looks out of the picture with a rather guilty expression. We also know that he was producing engravings of nude models during the same period.

Our guess is that Vágy was a commission from a client who appreciated Prihoda’s accomplished figure drawing and wanted something a little more risqué than a conventional nude.

We are very grateful to Hans-Jürgen Döpp for these images; Hans-Jürgen, the compiler of many books on erotic art, curates the Venusberg online gallery and bookshop which you can find here.