Jozef Božetech Klemens

Jozef Božetech Klemens (8 March 1817 in Liptovský Mikuláš – 17 January 1883 in Vienna) was a Slovak portrait painter, sculptor, photographer, inventor and naturalist. He chose his middle name, after an 11th Century painter and sculptor who was the last abbot of Sázava Monastery.

Klemens' father was a saddler and carriage maker from Kladsko. His artistic talent was first displayed by painting pictures on his father's coaches. He became an assistant at a printing shop owned by Gaspar Fejérpataky-Belopotocký, a Slovak patriot and cultural figure, who used his influence to promote Klemens' education. In 1837, upon the recommendations of Karel Slavoj Amerling and Father Václav Štulc, he was admitted to the Academy of Fine Arts, Prague for a trial period. He studied there from 1838 to 1843, attending science and technology lectures as well as his art classes.

After 1839, Klemens also worked as a teacher at a girls' school operated by Amerling, where he experimented with the educational techniques of Jan Amos Komenský (known as "Comenius"). In 1842, Amerling introduced him to Daguerrotypes in the chemical laboratory at the school. Shortly after, he opened a small photography studio called "Světloobrazárna" (The Light Gallery), in the school's garden. It was only the second such studio in Prague, but financial difficulties forced its closure after a year.

In 1843, Klemens returned to Slovakia, where he devoted himself to geological explorations for coal in Orava and Šariš. He also worked with "Tatrín", a Slovak cultural organization, where he painted the portraits of many notable Slovak nationalists. From 1847 to 1848, he was back in Prague, auditing lectures on medicine at the University of Prague and chemistry at the Technical University. After Amerling's school was ordered closed for its nationalistic tendencies, Klemens attempted to create his own industrial school, but was thwarted by the chaos resulting from the Revolutions of 1848.

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