Josef Václav Myslbek

His family pushed him to become a shoemaker but he shirked the duty by getting a job with a succession of Czech sculptors.

There was no school program for sculpting so he studied painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague instead.

He became greatly inspired by the French sculpting style as well as related arts such as photography and literature.

Josef Václav Myslbek influenced an entire generation of Czech sculptors and his students include Stanislav Sucharda, Jan Štursa and Bohumil Kafka.

In 1871, Myslbek produced some of his greater works including a commission to do a set of statues for the National Theater.