Miroslav Tyrš

The family moved to Döbling near Vienna where his father, mother and two sisters died from tuberculosis leaving Miroslav orphaned at the age of six years.

[4] He contributed philosophical articles to the first Czech encyclopaedia – Riegrův Slovník naučný, František Rieger's "Reference Book".

[5] After failing to secure an academic job, he left Prague to work as a tutor for the sons of a businessman in Nový Jáchymov near Beroun.

His study O zákonu konvergence při tvoření uměleckém (The Law of Convergence in Creating Art, 1880) argues that both form and content should be submitted to the artist's idea.

The idea is influenced by external conditions which he described in his other important books O slohu gotickém (Gothic Style, 1881), Láokoón, dílo z doby římské (Laocoön, Masterpiece from the Roman Times, 1873), Phidias, Myron, Polyklet (1879) and the unfinished Raffael Santi a díla jeho (Raffael Santi and his work, 1873, published 1933).

Tyrš saw an ideal type of Czechslavic men and women in the paintings of Josef Mánes while in contrast, he did not think highly of the work of Mikoláš Aleš.

[3] In February 1862, together with Jindřich Fügner, his father-in-law, he founded Tělocvičná jednota (Physical Training Union), which two years later adopted the name Sokol,[6] as proposed by Emanuel Tonner.

[3] He saw in his teachings a kind of opposition to the German "völkisch" virtues established by Friedrich Ludwig Jahn.

[3] After the first trips to the Říp Mountain and Oppidum Závist, the movement became widely popular among Czech patriots and in 1863 there were over 2000 members.

Portrait by Jan Vilímek
Tyrš (above all) posing with other Sokol members
Gothic Style published in 1881
Bronze medal by Josef Václav Myslbek (1904)
Memorial Plaque of Tyrš at Sokol House in Čáslav from 1932