Lot 65

Bohumil Kafka (1878 - 1942) BABY ELEPHANT

As early as March 1905, Kafka applied to the Paris prefecture for permission to sketch animals in the Jardin des Plantes. He would always go there in the spring to draw in the mornings, and the result was the intimate sculptures of a doe and her fawns, a camel, and later an elephant, which became Kafka's most successful and sought-after sculptures. They are reminiscent of the work of Rembrandt Bugatti, whom Kafka met in Paris. The two artists worked on the animal sculptures almost simultaneously. While Kafka concluded the series in 1905, Bugatti continued his animal sculptures. Kafka's animals represent a very modern sculptural impressionism, which he continued to develop in his later works.

Bohumil Kafka's sculptural work was largely created in the spirit of Art Nouveau and Symbolist tendencies. Kafka studied at the Sculpture and Stone School in Hořice v Podkrkonoší and at the School of Applied Arts in Prague. In 1904-1908 he lived and worked in Paris. He collaborated with his teacher Stanislav Sucharda on the monument to František Palacký. After Sucharda's death in 1916, he was appointed professor of decorative sculpture at the School of Decorative Arts. In 1925 he became professor of sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts. He also created a number of decorative elements for facades, busts, statues and monuments. The offered work comes from the author's estate from the famous Kafka's villa in Prague 6, Ořechovka. It is the author's 3rd cast made during his time in Paris by the bronze maker Hébrard using the lost wax technique.

Republished: Kafka, Bohumil and Wittlich, Petr. Bohumil Kafka: (1878-1942) : the story of a sculptor. Prague: Karolinum, 2014, p. 78.