František Ropek's work mostly comprises landscapes and figural compositions set in landscapes for which the painter found inspiration in the Litomyšl and Vysočina (Highland) areas. Using simple means of expression and a subdued colour palette, he managed to turn common, routinely repeated themes into unusually charming paintings.
He acquired his first artistic training at college in Ústí nad Orlicí (1918-1921) where he completed an apprenticeship in drawing patterns for fabrics. From 1922 to 1925, he attended the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague after which he studied figural painting for four years with Vratislav Nechleby at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague. After graduating, he lived alternately in Prague and Desná near Litomyšl where his family settled and where he had a villa and studio built towards the end of the 1930s.
From the end of the 1920s, his paintings expressed his strong relationship to rural life and to the French Realism of Jean F. Millet. His work, portraying grain and potato harvesting and other farm labour, is rich in detail and movement. However, we can also observe the artist's work with colour, as he gradually progressed from bold, vibrant colours to a more limited palette in the early 1930s. The colours themselves no longer model the shape of the body, that task being carried out by bold outlines.
In 1936, Ropek participated in a competition for the prestigious Turkova Award. He won, and in the following year set off on a study trip to Italy where, after studying Antique art, he painted a series of paintings inspired by Greek mythology and the local landscape. He turned to current affairs with his work during the Second World War, expressing his hostility to the events and recording the brutalities of the time. After liberation, he became a member of the Czechoslovak Communist Party (KSČ), became a public and party official, and turned to Socialist Realism in his artwork. From 1946 to 1952, he was the director of Litomyšl Town Gallery.
1929
Harvest
Litomyšl Town Gallery
1930
Litomyšl from Zaháj
Litomyšl Town Gallery
1937
Barges in Port
Litomyšl Town Gallery
1938
Don Quijote
East-Bohemian Gallery in Pardubice
1942
Prisoners
East-Bohemian Gallery in Pardubice
- Martin Boštík – Stanislav Vosyka, Vladyka z Bídy. Malíř a Litomyšlan Bohdan Kopecký, Litomyšl – Řevnice 2016, s. 34, 36, 37, 42–44.
- Martin Boštík – Stanislav Vosyka – Jaromír Zemina, Václav Boštík (1913–2005). K stému výročí malířova narození, Řevnice – Litomyšl 2013, s. 10–12, 23, 52, 80, 81, 93, 171, 177.
- Petr Kmošek, Obraz domova v malířství východních Čech 20. století, Ústí nad Orlicí 2006, s. 170–172.
- Jitka Boučková, František Ropek, obrazy, (kat. výst.), Litomyšl – Pardubice 1984.
- Vladimír Denkstein, František Ropek, (kat. výst.), Praha 1944.
- František Lašek, Seznam obrazů výstavy Františka Ropka v Litomyšli, (kat. výst.), Litomyšl 1937.
- Václav Drbohlav, Nové umělecké dílo v Litomyšli, Náš kraj. Neodvislý, pokrokový, vzdělávací a informující časopis věnovaný kraji východočeskému IX, 1935, č. 23, 1. 11., s. 5.
- Neuveden, Nové umělecké dílo v Litomyšli, Stráž českého východu. Nezávislý demokratický týdeník III, 1935, č. 43, 26. 10. , s. 5.
