Studio: international art (85.1923)

STUDIO-TALK

COLOSSAL SCULPTURE GROUP
ON THE HLAVKA BRIDGE
PRAGUE. BY JAN 'STURSA

proved that he had a temperament of his
own and was determined to be guided, not
by the theories and ideas of others, but
by his own keen conception of what was
true to Nature and Art. His definite
breaking away from the Impressionists was
clearly announced by his Jeune Fille
Melancholique, in which, as has been well
said in a recent work on contemporary
C^echo-Slovakian art by Antoine Matejcek
and Edenek Wirth, 44 solid consistency of
form henceforth replaced the lively play of
light and shade aimed at by the pleinairists
of sculpture/' True it is, too, that from
the very first a charming, naive and most
original lyrical note is to be heard in his
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work of this period. Abandoning the old
methods, he set to work to sculp his sub-
jects direct from stone and marble, with
the result that there is a surprising fresh-
ness and primitive beauty in all his figures.
Avoiding types which reflected the ner-
vosity of those days, he chose those which
were characterised by natural rusticity and
overflowing good health. All the feminine
nudes of this period possess the same
family likeness : the same healthy and

fresh flesh, the same sensual beauty are to
be found in his works—mostly in stone—
which were produced after 1908 and which
form a repertory of naive and original
poses. All these are summed up in his