Josef Václav Škoda

Sculptor Josef Václav Škoda is related to the city of Hradec Králové and its surroundings mainly thanks to his work for public space. Josef Škoda, baptized Václav after his father, was born into the family of stonemason Václav Škoda (1870–1937) and Marie Škodová (?–1903) née Hejzlarová in Česká Skalice near Hradec Králové on 1 May 1901. This marriage produced two more children, Emilie (1898–1921) and Bohumil (1899–1967). When Josef was two years old, the family suffered a great blow, the death of his mother, but his father Václav soon married her sister. The family moved to Hradec Králové in 1904, where there were better working conditions for the stonemason. 

Thanks to his tenacity and competence, Václav Škoda got a job as a foreman in the Ježek company in Hradec Králové. He soon gained a good reputation and his craftsmanship allowed him to become independent, thus providing a strong background for his family. In 1910, he had a house (No. 506) built in Silesian Suburbs and founded a stonemasonry company next to it. Škoda’s company worked for the city, mainly on monuments and reproduction of sculptures. 

Josef and Bohumil followed in their father’s footsteps and graduated from the School of Sculpture and Stonemasonry in Hořice in 1921. They had the same training, but Josef decided to pursue sculpture and Bohumil stonemasonry. As a stonemason, Josef’s brother took over their father’s workshop shortly before his death while Josef went to the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague, where he studied under Jan Štursa between 1921 and 1925. After graduation, he joined the air regiment for military service. Between 1926 and 1927, he studied under Otto Gutfreund at the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague for a year. This was the highlight of Josef V. Škoda’s education. He wanted to work in Prague, but did not manage to find a studio there, so he returned to Hradec Králové at the end of the year. 

In this East Bohemian metropolis, Josef had a strong background of a family business. He soon began to get contracts for the city, which he had already worked on during his studies in Prague. After his arrival in Hradec Králové, he soon established contact with the local cultural scene and made several strong friendships. 

In the 1930s, Škoda was active in the social life of Hradec, which he also cultivated with his works for public space. In 1931, he married Olga Mikanová (1909–1986), the daughter of Jaroslav Mikan, a musicologist and teacher at the Hradec Králové Girls’ Lyceum, and Ela Mikanová-Urbanová, an interior and textile designer. He exhibited his work, especially a small sculpture representing female nudes, in the local museum (1935) and co-founded the Group of Fine Artists in Hradec Králové. At the end of 1937, he undertook several long-planned trips around Europe, especially to France, where he visited the World Exhibition in Paris. In 1939, Josef and Olga had twins Radana and Olga.

The happy thirties were followed by wartime hardships and hardships. In 1940, Škoda worked on a statue of the writer Božena Němcová, which was to replace the monument to Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk in front of the Anglobank building, but the war foiled this project. After the war, the bronze sculpture of the first Czechoslovak president returned to its place. The statue of Němcová was unveiled in 1950, a year after the sculptor’s death. His early death thwarted his further artistic activity. Josef Václav Škoda died suddenly on August 15, 1949. 

Škoda’s work in the public space of Hradec Králové and its immediate surroundings includes over fourteen realizations, including monuments to important figures in Czech history and politics, allegorical sculptures, or sculptures related to architecture such monuments of Ladislav Pospíšil, Alois Jirásek, Božena Němcová, John Huss in Malšovice. He also created an allegorical sculpture of the Confluence of the Elbe and Orlice Rivers, two reliefs for the building of the National Bank of Czechoslovakia, and statues of Koželuh and Jirchář for the tanning secondary school designed by architect Josef Gočár. Škoda also created monuments to the victims of WWI and WWII, which were installed in Piletice, Svinary, and Pouchov. Last but not least, he sculpted the statue of a metal worked in the complex of the former Závody Vítězného února company or the statue of light bearers for the main train station in Hradec Králové. Škoda also designed a bronze bust of the local revivalist Jan Theobald Held and a bronze relief for the memorial to the victims of the WWI and WWII in front of the Sokol gymnasium in the nearby Třebechovice pod Orebem. He owed a number of realizations to his cooperation and friendship with the Hradec Králové architect Jan Rejchl. 

After his death, Škoda was remembered as follows: “He was a beautiful person [...]. He spread joy and wit. With the charm of his temperament, he was able to bring peaceful atmosphere wherever he came. He could caress and encourage you with his sparkly, childishly honest eyes. He was able to express his bohemian-sharp opinion face to face, without arousing indignation with his open criticism, which did not consciously anger or offend anyone. However, his earthy optimism was not just a manifestation of bohemian frivolity, as it may have seemed to many of those who knew him only socially. In fact, he was a very serious man, sometimes even melancholically thoughtful, and he had his moments of serious human and artistic conflicts. He dealt with them himself and never burdened anyone with his inner crises.” 

JFB