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Havelka is a landscape artist who was classically trained. He started to study under Stanislav Sucharda and Felix Jenewein at the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague, but subsequently transferred to the Academy, where he studied under Julius Mařák and Antonín Slavíček. In 1901 he received a scholarship from the Hlávka Foundation, which he used to travel in the Dolomites and Italy. Although Havelka's work is based in Realism, this trip influenced his perception of light. He depicts the landscape in a modern, lyrical manner, with modern brushwork and the application of the principles of sfumato. He earned acclaim as a painter of the Thaya river valley and as the illustrator of August Sedláček's famous publication about Czech castles and palaces. Work published under the title 'Ze starých dob' [From Olden Times] in: Dílo - umělecký měsíčník Jednoty umělců výtvarných, vol. XI, 1913, p. 116. Oil on canvas, signed and dated on bottom right "Rom. Havelka 1912".