Usually the real nature inspired the artist, but he created his paintings in the studio — using the sketches he had made outside, or just his memory. Starting from 1832, he often travelled abroad. According to some Czech commentators, it was Switzerland that tempted him most of all, but he also visited Germany, France, and Belgium. The artist especially preferred the Alps: waterfalls, mountain lakes, small huts and picturesque landscapes with the snowy mountain peaks in the background fascinated him.

The transient state of nature attracted Josef Navrátil like many other romanticists: morning and evening lights, waters – still or rapid.

Over the course of many years, Navrátil decorated palaces and mansions with wall painting. Czech and German nobility commissioned his work. He decorated the interior premises in Liběchov, in Klenov castle near Klaty, in Veliky Eerny, in Ploskovice.

The contemporaries loved his work; many collections in Prague held his paintings. However, Navrátil’s heritage truly came into value only after 50 years since his death — during the Rudolfinum exhibition in 1909. Then, for the first time the organizers were able to bring together a significant number of his paintings to assess his heritage in full. Since then, Josef Navrátil is considered one of the icons of the Czech painting art together with Josef Manes.