Lot 128

Břetislav Benda (1897 - 1983) IN A BATH

During the bath, the girl expresses the very essence of fragility - completely alone, undressed and completely unprepared for a potential observer. It is an act so fleeting and full of tension that he could not go unanswered in art. From the position of an artist, the depiction of such an act represents the revelation of the veil of secrecy of female beauty and the entry into the fragile taboo zone. Břetislav Benda accentuated this impression with a delicate carving in shimmering Carrara marble. The author of the sculpture Břetislav Benda graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague and was a student of J. V. Myslbek and Jan Štursa. During his life, he created an extensive work of more than a hundred sculptures, and the main theme that Benda dealt with was the female figure, especially in the form of an act. Benda himself adds: “I don't know a motif more beautiful than a woman in all her variations, an inexhaustible subject for a sculptor. With my sculptures I want to express the infinite beauty of the human body, but also other feelings. ”The work comes from the estate of Břetislav Benda.