Frantisek Drtikol

Biography and works

From coollection of the Museum of Decorative art in Prague

Nude with a cloth

In this edition of Czechs in History we look at the life and work of Czech photographer Frantisek Drtikol, arguably one of the most important photographers of the early half of the 20th century. Born in 1883 in the mining town of Pribram, west of Prague, Drtikol would go on to study photography in Munich, where he would be heavily influenced by the Art Nouveau. Early on he divided his time among both drawing and photography, but focused primarily on the latter upon his return home; both as an art form and as a means for making a living. In the year 1910 he opened his famous photo studio in Prague, where he shot portraits of some of the most important figures of his day: Czechoslovakia’s first president T.G. Masaryk, his foreign minister Edvard Benes, the composer Leos Janacek and many others whose names are legend now…