Lot 106

Bohumil Kafka (1878 - 1942) AFTER BATH

Bohumil Kafka, a significant Czech sculptor, is best known as the author of the monumental statue of Jan Žižka in Vítkov or the monument to the painter Josef Mánes the Rudolfinum building in Prague. In his works, he was open to the influence of Symbolism and in his early work also to the decorative requirements of Art Nouveau. Between 1904 and 1908, he worked in Paris, where he had the opportunity to see the work of Auguste Rodin and E. A. Bourdelle, along with the atmosphere of the emergence and gradual differentiation of modern art. At the time of the formation of the Czechoslovak state, after the death of Stanislav Sucharda, he replaced his teaching position at the Prague School of Arts and Crafts. At this time, the coexistence of sculpture and architecture was essential for Kafka. Large ideal figures were to be in balance with classic architecture. "The kneeling female nude entitled After Bathing from 1918 demonstrates," writes Professor Peter Wittlich "Kafka's attempt to really practice the basic principle of the New Style, that the human body as the figure is a formal assembly of the torso and its limbs, having a symbolic character. But even here the gaze of the sculpture, which is actually the mental counterweight of corporeality itself, had its weight." Published: Petr Wittlich. Bohumil Kafka. The Story of a Sculptor (1878-1942). 2014. p. 151.