Jan Josef Štursa (15 May 1880 in

Nové Město na Moravě Nové Město na Moravě (; german: Neustadt in Mähren) 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 we ...

– 2 May 1925 in

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

) 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' Places * Czech, ...

sculptor, one of founders of modern Czech sculpture.

Birth and studies

Štursa was born in mountainous area of Vysočina Region. He studied masonry and sculpture in

Hořice Hořice (, also known as Hořice v Podkrkonoší; german: Horschitz) is a town in Jičín District in the Hradec Králové Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 8,600 inhabitants. Administrative parts Villages of Březovice, Chlum, Chvalina, ...

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 language, culture and national identity. The most prominent figures o ...

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.http://www.ilovefiguresculpture.com/masters/czech/czech14.jpg 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 metalloids suc ...

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. Later, he was influenced by

cubism Cubism is an early-20th-century avant-garde art movement that revolutionized European painting and sculpture, and inspired related movements in music, literature and architecture. In Cubist artwork, objects are analyzed, broken up and reassemble ...

. Portrait painting was an important part of his works.

World War I

The tragedy of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

(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. Roughly long, it is the third-longest European mountain range after the Urals at and the Scandinavian Mountains at . The range stretches ...

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

. During 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 of syphilis vary depending in which of the four stages it presents (primary, secondary, latent, a ...

and in 1925, faced with increasing pain, he killed himself in his

atelier An atelier () is the private workshop or studio of a professional artist in the fine or decorative arts or an architect, where a principal master and a number of assistants, students, and apprentices can work together producing fine art or ...

two weeks before his 45th birthday. Štursa's nephew Jiri 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 (; ) is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts. The style is known by different names in different languages: in German, in Italian, in Catalan, and also known as the Modern ...

funerary monument for artist

Max Horb Max or MAX may refer to: Animals * Max (dog) (1983–2013), at one time purported to be the world's oldest living dog * Max (English Springer Spaniel), the first pet dog to win the PDSA Order of Merit (animal equivalent of OBE) * Max (gorilla) (1 ...

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-bo ...

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

External links

Short biography
(in Czech)

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

National Gallery in Prague The National Gallery Prague ( cz, Národní galerie Praha, 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 Cze ...

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

Hradec Králové Hradec Králové (; german: Königgrätz) is a city of the Czech Republic. It has about 91,000 inhabitants. It is the capital of the Hradec Králové Region. The historic centre of Hradec Králové is well preserved and is protected by law as an ...

Image: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. Career Kubešová became a member of the National Theatre in Prague in 188 ...

(1860–1907), Kinského zahrada,

File: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 i ...

Litomyšl Litomyšl (; german: Leitomischl) is a town in Svitavy District in the Pardubice Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 9,900 inhabitants. It is former bishopric and Latin Catholic titular see. Litomyšl is known for the château-type castle ...

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