Lot 90

Ladislav Šaloun (1870 - 1946) A VICTORY

This is a model for the unrealised Liberation Monument designed in 1918, commissioned by the town of Nový Bydžov. According to the author's notes, the monument depicts the nation as "a young man riding confidently into the rain of sunshine and the winds and storms. It expresses the idea of the whole nation, it depicts the young liberated homeland ... it gives a sense of all the longings, hopes, expectations of the liberation of the resurrected nation." After the commission was withdrawn, the statue was cast in bronze in several pieces on a smaller scale by the famous Czech moulder Franta Anýž. The success of this model is evidenced by the fact that it was purchased by, for example, Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk and the Ministry of National Defence for their collections. In the context of the new sculptural tendencies, Šaloun only hints at decorativeness and accentuates a rather clear line. The stated height is without the plinth.