Lot 109

Karel Lidický (1900 - 1976) THE LOST SON

One of the most significant Czech sculptors of the 20th century, Karel Lidický, gradually built upon various traditions of figurative representation in his work, breathing new life into them and updating them—from Classicism, through the expressive Baroque, to Myslbek-style Realism. The pinnacle of his work consists of pieces from the turn of the 1930s and 1940s (The Prodigal Son, The Old Man, Christ the Suffering, Dolorosa), in which he expressed the tragic atmosphere of that era through a Baroque-inspired form, influenced particularly by the work of Matyáš Bernard Braun. The significance of his key sculptures in the context of Czech sculpture of the 1930s and 1940s was convincingly demonstrated by Professor Petr Wittlich in 1978. The stone sculptures, displayed from below, bear an engraved dedication: TO THE RENOWNED / DR. / IN ŠTECHOV / LIDICKÝ