Lubomír Slavíček

Die Briefe Jan Štursas an Arthur Roessler aus den Jahren 1911-1914

One of the first critical reviews of the sculptural work of Jan Štursa (1880-1925) was published by the renowned Viennese art critic and promoter of modern art Arthur Roessler (1877-1955) in 1911 in the prestigious Darmstadt magazine Deutsche Kunst und Dekoration. Four years later, Roessler's second essay on the Czech sculptor appeared on the pages of the Munich magazine Die Kunst für Alle. We do not yet know what directly spurred Roessler's interest in Štursa and the decision to take on his sculptural work. However, before either of the texts was published there is no doubt that he made contact, first in writing and then face to face, with his generational peer. Today what is left of this unfortunately now one-sided correspondence is lodged among Roessler's personal and literary papers in the Vienna City Library (Wienbibliothek im Rathaus) and consists of eleven letters written by Jan Štursa between 1911 and 1914. Despite their professional subject matter and succinct literary style the surviving letters reveal a great deal about the nature of the relationship that evolved between critic and sculptor. It was not an intimate friendship, like the one Roessler had, for instance, with Egon Schiele, but rather a relationship infused with recognition and respect. One sign of this was no doubt the gifts that they exchanged in 1912 after the first of Roessler's (above-mentioned) articles was published. First, as a mark of gratitude, the sculptor gave the critic a bronze cast (whereabouts now unknown) of the original model for one of his most important sculptural works at that time, of the belly dancer Sulamit Rahu. Roessler quickly reciprocated with a gift of a small painting by Honoré Daumier. The most interesting piece of information in Štursa's letters relates to two paintings by Egon Schiele, Still Life with Flowers and A View of the Homes and Roofs in Krumau, from 1911 (since 1964 in the National Gallery in Prague). In early 1912 they were part of an exchange made between Štursa and Schiele, with Roessler as the intermediary. Unfortunately, we do not however know which of Štursa's sculptures Egon Schiele obtained in the exchange.

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