Miloslav Troup, with a cabinet containing Troup’s paintings in the background, 1950s, photograph, from the estate of Miloslav Troup.

Miloslav Troup was born on 30 June 1917 in Hořovice near Beroun. However, both of his parents came from South Bohemia, from the region beneath Mount Kleť. Miloslav was born as the middle child among ten siblings, three of whom died shortly after birth. Despite the family’s modest circumstances, his parents placed great emphasis on the education of all their children and supported their studies, even abroad. Alongside Miloslav, his younger sister Lidmila also inherited artistic talent.

Because Troup’s father worked for the state railways, the family moved frequently. When Miloslav was two years old, they moved to Kadaň, and from there to Hluboká nad Vltavou, where he began the first grade of elementary school. He completed his primary education back in his native Hořovice, as his father was transferred there again in the spring of 1926.

In 1928, Miloslav Troup began studying at the State Grammar School in Beroun. It was during this time that his interest in culture—and particularly in the visual arts—first emerged. This interest was fostered primarily by his drawing teacher, Josef Suchý. However, the academic curriculum did not suit Troup, and at the end of his sixth year he was expelled for poor performance.

During his secondary school years, Troup engaged in the cultural life of Hořovice through the student association Valdek. A helpful mentor to him was the drawing teacher Václav Živec, who taught at the Teacher’s Institute in Hořovice. Živec was the first to evaluate Troup’s artwork and recommended that he pursue formal artistic studies at one of the Prague schools.

During his time at the grammar school, Miloslav Troup created small compositions inspired primarily by his immediate surroundings. Because his father worked as a station dispatcher and later as a stationmaster, the family lived near railway facilities. It is therefore no surprise that the earliest surviving drawings by Troup depict motifs of railway stations, wagons, and signals. He recalled these early drawings in 1947 during his stay in France:
“Today, in all my efforts—my work and my studies—I am happy. I often remember the joy I felt when I drew, from the window at the station, the little pavilion with the chickens or the Šmíd family villa, and now I find something similar in my work, a similar joy—perhaps even greater.”

After leaving the grammar school, Troup continued to develop his talent at the State School of Graphic Arts in Prague, where he also deepened his interest in the book as an art form. Since childhood, he had been an avid reader and later acknowledged that he considered books to be a great gift. He did not want only to take from them; he wanted to give something back. The State School of Graphic Arts provided him with the path to fulfill this desire. Alongside other subjects, the school focused strongly on typography and book printing. Ladislav Sutnar, the school’s director, modernized the teaching of reproduction techniques to reflect the latest technical innovations. He encouraged experimentation with materials, and the school became a place where rare private prints were produced. Thanks to Sutnar’s leadership, the State School of Graphic Arts ranked among the best specialized schools in Europe during the 1930s, comparable to its model, the German Bauhaus. In this environment, Miloslav Troup began shaping his skills and artistic views.

In 1936, after completing the graphic school, Troup enrolled at the State School of Applied Arts in Prague, where he further studied graphic techniques and typographic principles, which he soon began to apply. A significant role at this time was played by his friendship with fellow student Jan Kotík. Their collaboration resulted in several avant‑garde prints that they submitted as final-semester works. At the School of Applied Arts, Troup studied under Professor Jaroslav Benda, who held the conviction that the foundation of artistic education lay precisely in graphic techniques. According to art historian V. V. Štech, who described Benda’s methods, “students must be engaged by something that is inherently close to them; therefore, Jaroslav Benda asks his pupils to begin by creating a children’s book […] Free drawing often leads to imprecision and overestimation of one’s personal style […] The demands of purpose—the awareness that a drawing serves a function beyond itself—lead instead to modesty and refined observation.”
This approach shaped Troup’s education and helps explain why he developed such a strong relationship with illustrating—especially children’s literature. From 1938 onward he specialized more intensively, attending Benda’s studio for applied graphics, book art, and advertising. During his studies, he created several fine bibliophile editions. He graduated from the School of Applied Arts in 1942, but remained there for nearly another year, working for various publishing houses. He then spent about six months studying ceramics in the school’s ceramics department under Professor Jan Lauda.

Troup significantly deepened his education in France. In 1945, he received a scholarship from the French government to study in Paris, which he held until 1948. At the beginning of December 1945, he enrolled at the École nationale supérieure des Arts décoratifs under Professor François Desnoyer. By the end of the same month, in December 1945, he received an invitation from Professor Maurice Brianchon of the École des Beaux‑Arts, who offered to take him into his studio the following year.

During his stay in France, Miloslav Troup painted diligently and with great enthusiasm. From his letters to his parents, we learn that he worked every day until one or two o’clock in the morning. At first, he went to draw in the Louvre and the Trocadéro. Later, he especially enjoyed wandering through flea markets and fairgrounds. He loved the atmosphere of these places and found inspiration there for his paintings.

While in France, he participated in several exhibitions. For three consecutive years—1946, 1947, and 1948—his works were accepted at the Salon d’Automne. In 1946 and 1947, he exhibited his paintings at the Salon Moins de 30 ans (Salon of Young Artists). Together with La Jeune École de Paris, he exhibited in the Netherlands, Finland, and Portugal. In 1947, he sent four paintings to a travelling exhibition in the Saar region, Munich, and Vienna. In the same year, the organisation Les Arts invited him to participate in an exhibition of contemporary art in Nice.
He did not limit himself only to exhibiting his work— in the spring of 1948 he also gave several radio lectures for the Czechoslovak broadcasting service in Paris about current exhibitions.

Among the Czechs living in Paris, Troup associated with the painter Josef Šíma, who worked as the cultural attaché of the Czechoslovak Embassy and mediated the sale of several of Troup’s works. He also established contact with František Kupka, and met frequently with Václav Nebeský, his former teacher from the School of Applied Arts in Prague. During their Paris friendship, Troup and Nebeský often visited galleries and the studios of French artists together. They visited, among others, the sculptor Charles Despiau, the Spanish painter Domínguez, and the studios of André Lhote, Serge Poliakoff, and George Braque, with whom Troup formed a closer relationship. He was also friends with the painter Bernard Buffet.
Among the French figures he associated with, the one closest to him was undoubtedly the art historian Pierre Descargues, whom he met in 1946. Descargues supported Troup’s artistic work and wrote several texts about him.

Troup did not spend all his time in France in Paris. He travelled through the countryside and to the sea. In February 1946, for example, he went—on Desnoyer’s recommendation—to paint in the department of Corrèze in the Massif Central, where he lived on a farm near the town of Tulle. In the summer of 1947, he spent his holiday by the sea in the town of La Napoule near Cannes.

His French stay was crucial for his artistic development: it was here that he truly discovered colour. His subjects focused mainly on figurative compositions and landscapes. As in his early work, he depicted exclusively objects, people, and landscapes observed directly from life. Compared to his previous production, however, he began to work with exaggerated forms, deforming and abstracting the objects he depicted. This change was shaped by the personalities and artistic movements he encountered in France. He became familiar with Cubist, Expressionist, Fauvist, and Orphist painting, and soon began to incorporate elements of these styles into his own work in a highly personal way.

 

Paris Around Six in the Evening (1948)

Among the key works of this period is his 1948 painting Paris Around Six in the Evening. The painting depicts a girl’s portrait. Elements of Cubist multi‑perspective analysis appear in the treatment of the facial features. The face has a triangular shape with small but expressive lips, a sharp nose, and almond‑shaped eyes depicted from a frontal viewpoint, while the nose and mouth are shown in profile.
The composition is rhythmically divided by black lines and coloured planes. Colour plays a crucial role, dominated by dark, saturated tones. The background is largely black, complemented by shades of brown, green, and red, which also appear in small patches on the light tone of the girl's skin. Through this colour scheme, the artist created a strong contrast of light, emphasising the spiritual quality of the entire painting. The light seems not to come from an external source but to radiate from the portrayed figure herself.

Art historian Vlastimil Tetiva, in his 2000 monographic essay on Troup, offered a deeper interpretation of the work and suggested a symbolic dimension: the painting was created at the end of Troup’s stay in France, reflecting the painter’s inner conflict about returning to his homeland, where the political climate had radically changed. According to Tetiva, the chosen colour palette and contrasts symbolise the tension between life and death and a contemplation of existence. The triangular composition of the face pointing downward supposedly signifies decline and spiritual anguish.

This interpretation is bold and debatable. Paris Around Six in the Evening reflects above all the influence of Cubism. The shape of the female face results from a Cubist analysis in which frontal and profile perspectives merge; thus, it makes little sense to ascribe symbolic meaning to the form itself. Troup was a reserved and modest person who did not feel the need to intellectualise his work. He expressed what he felt directly through his paintings and did not embed hidden meanings into them.

During his time in France, Troup became part of the young generation of painters shaping post‑war Parisian art and thus entered the sphere of European modern art. He left France for good at the end of 1949 and returned home to a country whose political situation had changed dramatically — the Communist Party had come to power and was beginning to impose socialist realism in the arts.

Return to Czechoslovakia and the 1950s

After his return, Troup settled in Prague. He worked in a studio on Veleslavínova Street in the Old Town, which he had already rented before leaving for France. His friend, the graphic artist, editor, and heraldist Zdeněk Zenger, described the appearance of this place in a 1957 article:

“Anyone who enters Miloslav Troup’s Old Town studio feels as though they have stepped into a new world […]. In the middle of the enchanting studio, a fishing net hangs from the ceiling, dividing the room’s horizon; this is the first thing that surprises every visitor. I wondered why this net dominated the space until I learned of his memories of the sea and of France. Flowers bloom in the single window of this realm, and through the glass one can almost touch the sky. A small aquarium holds several fish, and there are piles of drawings stacked in a low cabinet, a library filled with a refined selection of books—from Tamil poetry to the extensive dictionary by Meyer […]. In one corner stands an ordinary cupboard, a simple piece of furniture; yet even this has been touched by a magician’s wand and transformed into another of the painter’s helpers—a speaker filled with the works of the greatest masters […].”

Troup developed a deep love not only for Prague, where he lived and worked, but also for South Bohemia, to which he felt emotionally tied. As he mentioned in a radio interview, he felt he truly belonged to the South Bohemian region. He loved the countryside beneath Mount Kleť, the Prachatice region, and the homeland of his wife’s family—the Písek area. He often stayed with his brother Zdeněk, a pharmacist living with his family in Prachatice.

Apart from South Bohemia, he spent holidays in the Beskydy Mountains during the 1950s. Both of these landscapes left a distinct imprint on his work, especially his landscapes from this period.

Starting in 1950, Troup devoted himself intensively to illustration, thus reconnecting with his artistic interests from before his departure to France. He worked primarily with the publishing houses Artia and the State Publishing House of Fine Literature, Music and Art (SNKLHU). Across the following decades, illustration remained his main source of income.
In 1950, he became a member of the Union of Czechoslovak Artists, although he felt little enthusiasm for this organisation. In a private letter, he referred to it rather ironically as a “union of disorganisation.”

Troup was an introverted and reserved personality; he did not frequent Prague’s artistic circles nor did he maintain many close contacts with other artists. He kept in touch mainly with his former classmates. Even during his stay in France, he wrote to his parents that the visits of fellow scholarship students often annoyed him and distracted him from work.

Nevertheless, he followed contemporary artistic developments and attended exhibitions of modern artists. Younger artists in Prague often approached him for advice — likely seeking understanding and tolerance for their work, which frequently did not align with the official doctrine of communist socialist realism. Through his Paris education and artistic independence, Troup represented a certain moral and artistic authority for them.

For instance:

• Vladimír Boudník wrote to him in 1958, asking for feedback on works intended for a potential exhibition.

• Robert Piesen also asked Troup to evaluate his pieces.

• Stanislav Kolíbal consulted Troup regarding technical aspects of illustration.

Troup studied not only the themes of the books he illustrated but also the artistic techniques themselves. Thanks to his training, he mastered many graphic methods. Besides conventional painting techniques, he worked with encaustic, painting on glass, and painting on brocade and silk. He mixed sand and plaster into his paints. He also created designs for posters, stained glass, and tapestries.

 

The 1950s: Experimentation and Sacred Art

In the 1950s, Troup enjoyed experimenting with artistic materials, and during this period he discovered for himself the technique of reverse glass painting. This technique allowed the vivid colours of his works to fully shine. One of his notable works created in this medium is Golden City (1957).

In the foreground of the composition, a bridge arches over a river, while behind it rise the buildings, churches, and towers of a city. The art historian Jaromír Pečírka praised this painting in 1968, describing it as a dreamlike city, partly inspired by Troup’s travels in France. The composition, however, also faintly recalls the view from Charles Bridge toward Prague Castle.

Troup combined the two cities — Paris and Prague — in a poetic, imaginative way. Both lie on rivers and boast historical architecture with numerous bridges, churches, and palaces. The forms in the painting are defined by bold black contours, while the bright, vivid, unreal colours animate the architecture. The gold‑toned sky, achieved by placing a gold foil behind the glass panel, evokes a sense of timelessness and dreaminess. This golden background also references medieval religious art, which frequently used gold to symbolise the heavenly sphere. In many of Troup’s works, the combination of bright colours bounded by dark lines evokes the effect of medieval stained‑glass windows.

During the 1950s, Troup also devoted considerable attention to religious themes. Through these works, he contributed to a current in Czech art that had begun during the Second World War, emphasising spiritual subject matter. In this way, he stood alongside artists such as Jan Bauch and Bohuslav Reynek.

In 1957, the barriers of Czech exhibition halls finally began to open, and Troup started to exhibit publicly. He first showed his work in Karlovy Vary together with František Matoušek, then held solo exhibitions in Hořovice and Prague.
A year later, Prague hosted a retrospective of his paintings from 1945–1958.

The 1950s, however, were not the most successful decade of his life. Upon returning to his homeland, instead of the anticipated exhibitions and the free continuation of his Parisian artistic development, he encountered the rigid ideology of socialist realism. He sought a personal path outside this official doctrine and withdrew into his studio, creating according to his own convictions. Gradually, he moved away from the style he had practiced in France and attempted to find a new artistic expression.

This search was particularly evident in his landscapes, in which he progressed from nearly realistic representation to a more expressive form. Although his works from this period varied stylistically, this diversity did not diminish their quality. Troup’s painting in the 1950s remained modern; he refused to conform to state‑mandated socialist realism and continued developing the insights he had gained in France.

​

The 1960s: Creative Maturity, Recognition, and Marriage

The 1960s marked a more successful and outward‑facing period in Troup’s life and artistic career, especially when compared to the previous decade. This new phase was supported by a more relaxed political climate and a more open artistic environment in Czechoslovakia. Troup began receiving public recognition, was able to exhibit more freely, and even travel abroad.

In 1963, he married Marie Vindišová, and the couple settled in a small apartment on Nerudova Street in the historical heart of Prague. Troup spent most of his life in this neighbourhood. Every morning except Sundays, he walked from the apartment to his Old Town studio, where he worked throughout the morning. He returned home for lunch, and in the afternoon he either resumed his work or spent time with his wife.

Marie Vindišová possessed artistic talent of her own and created artwork together with her husband, who taught and guided her. Following Troup’s example, she focused primarily on book illustration.

Throughout the 1960s, Troup’s painting developed into a distinctly expressive idiom. His work did not reflect contemporary trends in Czech or international art; rather, it evolved within the direction he had already set during the 1950s. His artistic expression became increasingly rooted in bold colour fields, often structured by a linear drawing framework.

This decade brought stability to his style, and although he continued exploring expressive possibilities, his work bore a clear and consistent signature of individuality.

 

Prague Motifs, Foreign Travels, and Key Works of the Late 1960s

No major personal or artistic upheavals comparable to his transformative years in France occurred in Troup’s life from the 1960s onward. Instead, his work matured in continuity. Alongside his art, he devoted considerable time and care to his wife, whose health was fragile. Because of her condition, the couple spent their summer holidays by the sea. From 1963 to 1968, they regularly visited Yugoslav seaside resorts such as Sutomore in Montenegro or Brela near the Makarska Riviera. During these stays, Troup produced numerous paintings.

Later, in the late 1960s and early 1970s, the couple frequently travelled to Italy, where they stayed at the spa Salice Terme in Pavia. A wealthy Milanese patron sponsored their two‑month stays; Marie underwent treatment while Troup painted works to repay the patron’s support.

During this time, Troup’s interest turned increasingly toward the historic architecture of Prague. He depicted Prague motifs for the rest of his life, capturing the city’s charm in his own subjective, expressive visual language.

One of his notable works from this period is:

Týn Church (1969)

The vertically oriented painting is dominated by a boldly abstracted bright‑red form of the Church of Our Lady before Týn, stripped of detail. Only the characteristic twin towers and the arcades at the entrance hint at the subject.
The dazzling red architecture is accented by harmonising touches of complementary green. The background consists of a single vivid blue tone. In this work, Troup completely abandoned contour lines; he built space purely through colour relationships. The cold blue recedes, while the glowing red pushes forward—creating a powerful spatial tension.
Similar visual strategies appear in works such as Night Stop and Dawn Among the Towers (both 1969).

Another significant painting from the early 1960s exemplifies his playful, fantastic approach:

The Fool and the Sun (1960)

A dynamic figurative composition inspired by scenes Troup observed in South Bohemia. The central figure—a fool playing with balls, accompanied by a rooster—stands against a simplified backdrop showing part of a house and a shining sun.
In the foreground, two severe, incomplete human faces gaze at the viewer. Troup zooms in on the fool, leaving other elements cropped, as if through a camera viewfinder. Black contours bind the figures, while dominant red and yellow tones energise the surface. This play of colours and diagonals animates the painting.
The subject is based on reality: Troup portrayed Pepík Popů, a mentally ill man from Prachatice. The painting echoes themes from his French works depicting flea markets and fairground scenes—eccentric characters rendered with imagination and poetic exaggeration, giving the work a fairy‑tale quality.

 

Illustration in the 1960s: Awards and International Recognition

During the 1960s, Troup increasingly focused on book illustration, which became more prominent than his easel painting and applied arts. He illustrated around 40 titles during this decade. His main collaborators included:

• Artia

• Československý spisovatel

• Odeon

• SNDK (State Publishing House for Children’s Books)

He illustrated many books for children, a domain in which he soon achieved international acclaim.

His major awards included:

• 1963 — Gold Medal at the International Biennial of Book Illustration, São Paulo
  for his illustrations to the anthology The Linden Tree.

• 1966 — UNESCO Prize at the Frankfurt Book Fair
  for his illustrations to Co vyprávěl kalumet (Indian legends retold by Vladimír Hulpach).

He also exhibited widely in smaller regional exhibitions and took part in numerous group shows. Notable foreign presentations included:

• 1960 — Munich, exhibition of artistic crafts

• 1963 — Havana, exhibition of artistic crafts

These exhibitions introduced his work to broader international audiences and confirmed his growing reputation.

 

The 1970s and 1980s: Stability, Mature Expression, Sacred Art, Applied Art

Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Troup maintained the same lifestyle he had established in the previous years. His life revolved around two constants: his work and the care of his ailing wife. He continued to visit his brother in South Bohemia and spent summers in Italy. The consistency and stability of his personal life were mirrored in his artistic output.

These decades represent a highly stable and mature period of Troup’s career. His artistic expression had become fully consolidated, and no political or personal shifts significantly altered his direction. Contemporary artistic trends of the 1970s and 1980s did not substantially influence him; by this time, he worked with absolute assurance and autonomy, capturing—through his unmistakably personal style—not only Prague’s architecture but also the Italian landscapes and cities where the couple spent their holidays.

Milánský dóm / Milan Cathedral (1972)

In 1972, during one of his Italian stays, Troup created the remarkable painting Milan Cathedral. The composition presents a frontal view of the cathedral’s main façade. Troup breaks down the monumental structure into fragmented forms from which he constructs a dynamic painterly composition.

The crystalline treatment of forms recalls aspects of analytical Cubism. The colour palette is restricted primarily to shades of blue, accompanied by white accents. Sky, cathedral, and ground merge fluidly, giving the scene a unified tone. The cool blue shades evoke an atmosphere of solemnity and weightlessness.

Troup applied pigments energetically with both brush and palette knife, resulting in a layered, textured surface. Despite the dynamism of the formal treatment, the overall impression is one of spiritual stillness and profound calm.

Religious and Spiritual Works in the 1970s and 1980s

Troup returned again to religious and spiritual themes, which had accompanied him since the late 1940s. Yet illustration remained his main source of livelihood, as it had in earlier decades.

He illustrated around 40 book titles in these two decades, focusing especially on children’s literature, and strengthened his collaboration with several major publishing houses, including:

• Vyšehrad

• Albatros

• Práce

One of his most important long‑term commissions was illustrating Vladislav Vančura’s Images from the History of the Czech Nation, a project that took him five years. He illustrated the book twice — first in 1968, and again in 1974.

By this time, Troup was widely regarded as an authoritative figure in the field of illustration, especially in children’s books. His status was confirmed by numerous awards from publishing houses such as Albatros, Odeon, and Vyšehrad.

• In 1970, he received the Minister of Culture Award for Book Art for his illustrations to Meč a píseň (Sword and Song).

• In 1971, he received a medal at the International Book Fair in Leipzig for the same title.

• Over the course of his career, he won the “Most Beautiful Book of the Year” award six times.

Applied Art: Stained Glass, Sacred Interiors, and Tapestries

A lesser‑known yet highly significant portion of Troup’s oeuvre lies in his work in applied arts, especially:

• stained glass windows

• sacred interior decoration

• tapestry designs

• painted furniture and household objects

• lamps and chandeliers in stained‑glass form

These works were often created for private interiors and remain preserved as treasured personal objects.

Stained Glass and Sacred Interiors

Troup was particularly devoted to decorating church interiors, making extensive use of stained glass. He remained faithful to traditional stained‑glass techniques and conceived the windows as luminous filters shaping the atmosphere of each sacred space.

Most of these sacred commissions were realized in the 1950s, primarily in collaboration with architect Jaroslav Čermák, and many of them are found in churches throughout:

• Bohemia

• Moravia

• Slovakia

Despite the difficult political context — when the Church was heavily oppressed — several of these works were miraculously completed.

Some stained‑glass compositions exhibit characteristics reminiscent of French tachisme, especially the abstract chromatic fields found in the works of Alfred Manessier.

The Major Sacred Project: Pitín, Church of St. Stanislaus

Troup’s most extensive sacred interior decoration was executed in the parish church of St. Stanislaus in Pitín, southern Moravia.

The church, built in 1851, underwent complete reconstruction in 1951 due to structural problems. The restoration was initiated by Pitín native and Archbishop of Olomouc Josef Matocha. Designs for the reconstruction were prepared by Jaroslav Čermák, who invited Troup to create the interior decoration.

Troup’s contributions included:

• Fourteen Stations of the Cross (reverse glass paintings)

• A large wall painting behind the altar

• Four stained‑glass windows in the presbytery

• Decorations for the altar, including the tabernacle

• Twelve altar candlesticks

This ensemble forms a nearly complete artistic environment — a Gesamtkunstwerk — uniting architecture, painting, stained glass, and liturgical objects.

Stations of the Cross

Each of the 14 reverse‑glass paintings is defined by strong black contours and vibrant colour fields, with gold foil shining through areas left unpainted. The use of gold recalls medieval panel painting and its symbolic association with the divine realm.

A notable shift occurs in the last four stations, where the colour palette darkens, especially in hues of purple, traditionally associated with mourning. The Pietà is the darkest and most somber, illuminated only by faint yellow reflections on the lifeless body of Christ.

Troup approached the theme with an illustrator’s sense of clarity but executed it with grandeur and expressive restraint.

Presbytery Windows

The four stained‑glass windows illuminate the sanctuary with irregular fields of red and yellow. One window incorporates the motif of a chalice. Like the Stations, the windows exhibit a deliberate progression of colour: the outer panels are lighter, while the two inner ones blaze with intense tones.

Tabernacle and Altar

The altar consists of a marble table with a copper tabernacle crowned by a baldachin supporting a wooden crucifix. Troup designed:

• a symbol of sacrificial smoke for the baldachin

• a radiant sun‑like golden motif for the tabernacle doors

• two triangular metal wings decorated with semi‑precious stones

• twelve copper candlesticks set upon the altar

This cohesive design integrates with the church’s austere classical architecture, creating a harmonious sacred space.

Tapestries (Gobelins)

In the early 1960s, Troup also designed tapestries, contributing to the flourishing of Czech textile art. He created 18 designs, of which four were actually woven. Themes included:

• Prague architecture

• Folk motifs

• Historical landmarks of South Bohemia

Tapestry was a natural extension of his vibrant colourism and expressive painterly style. Even in woven form, his dynamic visual language remained unmistakable.

Posters and Graphic Work

At the beginning of the 1960s, Troup and his wife also designed posters, joining the artists who contributed to the remarkable rise of Czech poster art. Unlike the experimental approaches of younger graphic designers, Troup relied primarily on painterly techniques.
Although his poster production is limited in quantity, it demonstrates his versatility and ability to work across artistic disciplines.

The Final Years and Legacy

Miloslav Troup died on 22 February 1993 in Prague and was buried in Prachatice.

His work — somewhat solitary, yet profoundly original — forms an essential part of Czech visual culture in the second half of the 20th century. His legacy spans painting, illustration, stained glass, applied art, and monumental decoration. Across all media, his unmistakable sense of colour, expressive vigor, and poetic imagination endure.