Page:Bohemia; a brief evaluation of Bohemia's contribution to civilization (1917).pdf/52

 his big artistic soul. He painted with passionate devotion the home of the Hussites, the poor county of Tabor, which is so unyielding to the plowman, but which was the only corner of the earth in which the heroic Hussite hetmans could have been born. He was the painter of the soul of his native land.

Many tried to follow his footsteps; one of the best is the gentle, sentimental Alois Kalvoda, who loves equally the Bohemian and Slovak landscape: the groups of white birches, brooks winding among alders, long vistas of the picturesque Bohemian and Slovak country.

At the Wentworth Institute engaged as one of the professors is Vojtěch Pressig. He is known for his beautiful colored etchings, which breathe indescribable poesy and vibrate with beautiful color chords. He did some of his best work in his illustration of the juvenile classic “Broučci” (The Fire-Flies). Under his leadership was published the excellent album of the Bohemian Artists in the United States which was their contribution to the fight for freedom of their people.

As Josef Manes was the first real Bohemian painter, so Václav Levý was the first real Bohemian sculptor. His works were mainly religious and many of them are to be found in the art collection in the Vatican at Rome. His sculpture in the sandstone rocks of Kokořín near Prague, are wonderful. Here in the open he hewed these shapeless rock masses into exquisite forms, on themes from the Greek mythology and Bohemian history. Unfortunately, he lived in an era when his great talent could not assert itself in such a way as could that of ''Jos. Vác. Myslbek'', who appeared later. Myslbek was the first Bohemian professor of sculpture at the art academy of Prague. With his art he decorated Palacký Bridge and the exterior of the Bohemian National Theatre in Prague. His hands fashioned the statue of the great Hussite leader Jan Žižka of Trocnov, the monument of St. Václav, the national hero of the Bohemian people, the statue of the poet Mácha and many other works. His art was strong, full of life, magnificent in form and spirit.

Ladislav Šaloun is the creator of the great historical monument of Jan Hus, our national saint and martyr for