Lot 69

Bohumil Kafka (1878 - 1942) GENERÁL M. R. ŠTEFÁNIK

In 1928, an ideological competition was announced for a large monument to Milan Rastislav Štefánik for Bratislava. By the beginning of September Kafka had completed the first plastic sketch in the scale of 1:40. It turned out that the matters connected with the Štefánik monument were complicated, as it was not only an artistic but also a political issue. During 1929 Kafka modelled six more variants and began to concentrate on the Štefánik-airman variant. The auxiliary model, which was exhibited in Paris, where it was also purchased by the French Ministry of Education, was 247 cm high, and the final statue, which measured 760 cm, was also based on it. In 1936, permission to realise it came, ending a struggle that lasted a total of eight years. The offered statue cast in bronze represents the sculpture of General Stefanik, which he created before the six variants mentioned above. In it, he abandons sculptural realism and gives expression to the author's work with matter. The offered work comes from the estate of the author from the famous Kafka's villa in Prague 6 - Ořechovka.