Ferdinand Pribyl Bethlehem Scene

Ferdinand Pribyl was a Czech Moravian who was born in 1840 in Frenstat and emigrated to Texas in 1885. In his later years, he painted at least 7 wall-sized Bethlehem scenes for his friends and family. Below is the scene owned by the Fred and Elizabeth Stockbauer family of Victoria, Texas. It measures about 18 feet in length and 18 inches in height. In this scene the people on the right are farmers and peasants, coming to the manger of the Holy Family with gifts of animals from their farms. On the left are people coming from the city, with gifts of linen, baked goods and produce. A newspaper article about Ferdinand entitled "ART WITH LASTING VALUE" by Sidney R. Weisiger was published in The Victoria Advocate, Jan. 28, 1973, and can be viewed here as a PDF document. Special thanks are due to Dr. Robert Shook and Bob Allen of Victoria College who photographed and digitized the image of Ferdinand Pribyl's work displayed here.

The Ferdinand Pribyl Bethlehem Scene was on public display at the University of Texas at San Antonio Institute of Texan Cultures during the 2007 Christmas Holiday season, from Nov. 20, 2007 – Jan. 6, 2008. See the UTSA Institute of Texan Cultures website for further information.

Also, an article by Ferdinand Pribyl's grand-niece, Bette Stockbauer, was published in the Fall 2007 edition of Kosmas, a peer-reviewed, multidisciplinary journal that focuses on Czech, Slovak, and Central European Studies. It is published bi-annually by the Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences (SVU). Kosmas is not available online, but in hardcopy by subscription only and information on the journal and subscriptions may be found here. Bette's article, entitled "From Frenstat to Fayette County — A Chronicle of Two Brothers: Jan and Ferdinand Pribyl", uses original correspondence from Jan, her paternal grandfather and his brother, Ferdinand, to paint a picture of life on the frontier of Texas and the old country of Moravia at the end of the 19th century.

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