František Mořic Nágl

Born on 28 May 1889 in Kostelní Myslová, district of Jihlava 1944, Auschwitz

František Nágel studied at the Grammar School in Telč, in 1905 he began his studies at the College of Applied Arts in Prague, and between 1909 and 1912 he studied at the Painting Academy at Prague under Professor Hanuš Schwaigr. After that he lived and practised his art in Telč. He painted Moravian landscapes and the environment in which he lived. He took part in many exhibitions of Moravian artists. E.g. in 1919 he exhibited his water colours, mainly set in Brno, at an exhibition in Brno. He attracted attention with his pictures of folk pilgrimages at exhibitions in Hodonín. In 1933 he exhibited in Prague his water colour The Market in the Dominican Square in Brno. His retrospective exhibition took place in 1937 in Ostrava.
On 22 May 1942, Nágel, his wife Vlasta, daughter Věra and son Miloslav, were deported, along with other Telč Jews, to the Teresienstadt (Terezín) ghetto. During the tragic days of Nágel’s stay in Terezín he created 254 pictures which were hidden in the loft of one of Terezín houses, where they were discovered in 1950. A retrospective exhibition of Nágel’s work took place in 1951 in Prague.
On 28 October 1944 transport No. Ev 1351 dispatched Nágel to the Auschwitz camp from which he never returned. However, his work still lives as a reminder of the horrors of fascism. Many of the painter’s prewar artifacts can still be found in many households and institutions in Telč.

(P. Toman: A new Dictionary of Czechoslovak Painters and Sculptors, Prague 1936, p. 474, The Bulletin of the Jewish Religious Community, No. 5/XIII, 1951, “Posthumous Exhibition of Nágel” and “Exhibition of Pictures from the Terezín Ghetto”)
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