Lot 74: ROE DEER WITH TWO YOUNG, A BRONZE SCULPTURE

CAST FROM THE MODEL BY BOHUMIL KAFKA, 1905
12in. (30.5cm.) high, 20 1/2 in. (52cm.) wide, 8 1/4 in. (21cm.) deep
signed in the maquette B. Kafka and marked Prvni Odlitek (first casting), and FRANTA ANYZ for founder, dated 1905

The Czech sculptor Bohumil Kafka (b. 1879 d. 1942) became a member of the Association of Artists Manes in 1898. He exhibited at la Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts in 1902, and had his own studio in Paris between 1904 and 1908. It was during this Parisian phase of his work that Kafka was most influenced by the Impressionist movement, and in particular by the work of Rembrandt Bugatti. Kafka also worked in London, Rome, Berlin and Vienna.
The period photograph shows Kafka in his studio in Paris, with the plaster cast for the present group on the shelf behind him.
cf. Tschechishe Kunst 1878 -1914, exhibition catalogue, Darmstadt, 1985, p. 110 et seq.
Another example of this bronze is in the permanent collection of the Czech National Gallery in Prague.