Helen Zelezny-Scholz

[1] She was an influential figure in the sculpture of north Moravia and Silesia in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Zelezny was born in Chropyně, in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and raised in the village of Třebovice, which is now part of the city of Ostrava in Austrian Silesia.

Her mother was the German writer and poet the countess, Maria Stona and her grandfather was the industrial manager and entrepreneur de:Alois Scholz.

She studied sculpture in Berlin under Fritz Heinemann, and in Brussels for four years where her teacher was Charles van der Stappen.

She was engaged to sculpt portraits of members of the Habsburg imperial family, including Princess Zita of Bourbon-Parma.

Pablo Picasso, Igor Stravinsky, and Giacomo Puccini produced some of their greatest works in these studios in the early 1900s.

After the Second World War, Zelezny wanted to donate her family's château in Třebovice to the Czechoslovak government as a centre for young artists.

[4] Zelezny's works include more than 300 sculptural portraits such as busts, reliefs and statuettes in marble, bronze and terracotta.

Zelezny in 1913
Slovak Family, bronze, 1933