Jan Josef Štursa (15 May 1880 – 2 May 1925) was a

Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus *Czech (surnam ...

sculptor, one of founders of modern Czech sculpture.

Birth and studies

Štursa was born on 15 May 1880 in

Nové Město na Moravě Nové Město na Moravě (; ) is a town in Žďár nad Sázavou District in the Vysočina Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 9,800 inhabitants. It is known as a winter sports resort. The historic town centre is well preserved and is protecte ...

. He studied masonry and sculpture in

Hořice Hořice (; ) is a town in Jičín District in the Hradec Králové Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 8,500 inhabitants. Administrative division Hořice consists of seven municipal parts (in brackets population according to the 2021 censu ...

and worked as stone cutter. Later, he studied at the Academy of Arts (AVU) in Prague under professor Josef Myslbek, a known sculptor. As a result of very rigorous criticism from Myslbek, Štursa destroyed most of his early works.

Themes and materials

Štursa was not influenced by

Czech National Revival The Czech National Revival was a cultural movement which took place in the Czech lands during the 18th and 19th centuries. The purpose of this movement was to revive the Czech Czech language, language, culture and national identity. The most pro ...

as the older sculptors but tried to find his own way. The female body was his frequent motif, for example in ''Before taking bath'', 1906 or ''The Melancholy Girl'', 1906.The Melancholy Girl
/ref> A monumental couple of figures decorates the pylons of Hlávka Bridge in Prague. In addition to stone and

bronze Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals (such as phosphorus) or metalloid ...

he also used

plaster Plaster is a building material used for the protective or decorative coating of walls and ceilings and for moulding and casting decorative elements. In English, "plaster" usually means a material used for the interiors of buildings, while "re ...

and

wax Waxes are a diverse class of organic compounds that are lipophilic, malleable solids near ambient temperatures. They include higher alkanes and lipids, typically with melting points above about 40 °C (104 °F), melting to give lo ...

. Later, he was influenced by

Cubism Cubism is an early-20th-century avant-garde art movement which began in Paris. It revolutionized painting and the visual arts, and sparked artistic innovations in music, ballet, literature, and architecture. Cubist subjects are analyzed, broke ...

. Portrait painting was an important part of his works.

World War I

The tragedy of

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

(he had served at the front) affected Štursa's work. The most famous work of this period is ''The Wounded''
early versionfinal version
(1921)

The inspiration for the ''Burial in the Carpathians'' sculpture was a photograph from a

Carpathian The Carpathian Mountains or Carpathians () are a range of mountains forming an arc across Central Europe and Southeast Europe. Roughly long, it is the third-longest European mountain range after the Urals at and the Scandinavian Mountains at ...

battlefield. The original group in

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uniforms was remade in the 1920s into a memorial of victims of World War I and placed in the village Předměřice nad Jizerou, with copies in Místek and in Nové Město na Moravě. In 1922–1924, Štursa served as Rector of the Academy of Arts (AVU). Štursa suffered from the effects of

syphilis Syphilis () is a sexually transmitted infection caused by the bacterium ''Treponema pallidum'' subspecies ''pallidum''. The signs and symptoms depend on the stage it presents: primary, secondary, latent syphilis, latent or tertiary. The prim ...

and on 2 May 1925, faced with increasing pain, he killed himself in his atelier in Prague at age 44. Štursa's nephew Jiří Štursa was the architect of

Stalin's Monument (Prague) Stalin's Monument () was a granite statue honoring Joseph Stalin in Prague, Czechoslovakia. It was unveiled on 1 May 1955 after more than years of work, and was the world's largest representation of Stalin. The sculpture was demolished in late ...

Works

Art Nouveau Art Nouveau ( ; ; ), Jugendstil and Sezessionstil in German, is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts. It was often inspired by natural forms such as the sinuous curves of plants and ...

funerary monument for artist

Max Horb Max or MAX may refer to: Animals * Max (American dog) (1983–2013), at one time purported to be the world's oldest living dog * Max (British dog), the first pet dog to win the PDSA Order of Merit (animal equivalent of the OBE) * Max (gorilla) ...

in the New Jewish Cemetery.Marie vitochova Jindrichkjer and Jiri Vsetecka, ''Prague and Art Nouveau'', translation by Denis Rath and Mark Prescott, Prague: V Raji, 1995.

References

* Petr Wittlich: ''Sculpture of the Czech Art Nouveau'', Prague,

Karolinum Press Karolinum Press is the university press of Charles University in Prague. It was established in 1990, and it has published over 5000 titles since then. Its English-language books are distributed globally by University of Chicago Press, and its e-b ...

2001, (in English, German translation available) * Jiří Mašín, photos Tibor Honty: "Jan Štursa", Odeon, Prague, 1981

External links

Short biography
(in Czech)

Jan Štursa - Před koupelí.jpg, 1906 – Before the bath,

National Gallery in Prague The National Gallery Prague (, NGP), formerly the National Gallery in Prague (), is a state-owned art gallery in Prague, which manages the largest collection of art in the Czech Republic and presents masterpieces of Czech and international fine a ...

Hradec Králové - Gymnázium J. K. Tyla - Socha Vítěze.jpg, Victor,

Hradec Králové Hradec Králové (; ) is a city of the Czech Republic. It has about 94,000 inhabitants. It is the capital of the Hradec Králové Region. The historic centre of Hradec Králové is well preserved and is protected as an Cultural monument (Czech R ...

HanaKvapilovaMonument.jpg, 1914 – Monument of Czech stage actress

Hana Kvapilová Hana Kvapilová (29 November 1860 – 8 April 1907) was a Czech actress. Early life Johanna Kubesch (Hana Kubešová) was born in Prague, the daughter of Gustav Kubeš. Her father ran an established gilding workshop. Later he wanted to get ri ...

(1860–1907), Kinského zahrada,

Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

2021 Litomyšl Smetana statue.jpg, Monument of

Bedřich Smetana Bedřich Smetana ( ; ; 2 March 1824 – 12 May 1884) was a Czech composer who pioneered the development of a musical style that became closely identified with his people's aspirations to a cultural and political "revival". He has been regarded ...

Litomyšl Litomyšl (; ) is a town in Svitavy District in the Pardubice Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 10,000 inhabitants. It is a former bishopric and Latin Catholic titular see. Litomyšl is known for the château-type castle complex of the Lit ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stursa, Jan 1880 births 1925 suicides Czech male sculptors Artists who died by suicide Suicides by firearm in Czechoslovakia Suicides by firearm in the Czech Republic Art Nouveau sculptors People from Nové Město na Moravě 20th-century Czech sculptors 1925 deaths Sculptors from Austria-Hungary 20th-century Czech male artists