Study for the Melancholic Girl

The human figure and its corporality belong to the basic themes of Štursa’s art. In his rapidly sketched studies and drawings, he captured the principal ideas and concepts for his sculptures. He made recurrent use of the range of possibilities of pencil drawing, from a thin line to plastic modelling achieved by rubbing chalk. These preparatory studies were an important source for his sculptural work; this is where we find the first inspiration for his sculpture Melancholic Girl (1906). Female nudity was his most frequent motif; Štursa produced numerous nudes ranging in treatment from a lyrical approach to erotic sensuality. The National Gallery Prague’s Collection of Drawings houses more than 600 of his drawings and several sketchbooks purchased from the artist’s posthumous estate in 1930 for the Modern Gallery.