Rudolf Bruner-Dvořák

2 July 1864, Přelouč – 30 October 1921, Prague

Rudolf Bruner-Dvořák had eleven siblings. He had spinal deformation caused by an injury he suffered when he fell from a tree, which marked him for life. His father Václav Bruner, a tailor, officially changed his name in 1895 to Dvořák, apparently for patriotic reasons (Rudolf Bruner was not allowed to do the same until 1919). Rudolf Bruner studied photography in Munich, under the photographer Carl Teufel. Immediately after completing his course in 1887, he founded a photographic studio in Přelouč. From 1889 he worked in Královské Vinohrady in Prague. He was one of the first photographers who specialised primarily on photographic works outside the studio, as his studio was not very well equipped for classical portraits. He first attracted attention with his photographs shot after the fall of the Kysibelka balloon in 1891, after which he began close collaboration with the newspapers Deník Praha, which regularly published his photographs.

From 1891, he photographed Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his family, escorting the heir to the throne on hunts and other pastime activities, and even photographing his daughter Sophie only two weeks after her birth. In 1894, he and his entire family (parents and siblings) moved to the centre of Prague, to Palacký Street no. 270, where he worked until his death.

The first important period of his work was between 1891 and 1904, when he photographed various manoeuvres, hunts and sporting, political and cultural events. He also photographed architecture. In 1904, the second important period of his work began, during which he began collaborating with the magazine Český svět, which lasted until 1910. During his travels around Europe, he began focusing on the Monarchy’s southern parts; for example, he photographed the coronation of the Serbian king Peter Karađorđević in 1904 in Belgrade. During his Balkan trips, he also photographed scenes from everyday life. The period between 1907 and 1910 was the pinnacle of his career, when he also became famous for his interior photographs. In his last creative period, from 1910, he mostly focused on supporting photographic activities of his younger brother Jaroslav, whom he taught and who officially took over the company after Rudolf’s death in 1921.