Miloslav Beutler

Life and work

He was born on 3 September 1897 in Pardubice, the son of a railway official. He studied at the ceramics school in Bechyně (1912–1915), at the School of Applied Arts in Prague under Josef Drahoňovský and Otakar Španiel (1915–1919) and in Otakar Španiel's special school of medallic art at the Academy of Fine Arts (1919–1923); from 1923 to 1930 he also studied anthropology at the Faculty of Science of Charles University. Study trips took him to Vienna, Italy, France and Yugoslavia. In collaboration with the university's Anthropological Institute he made a bronze Head of an Indian in 1927. During an interrogation at the Petschek Palace he suffered a serious injury to his cervical spine and for several years could not fully return to his work; his studio was hit at the end of the war and the works in it destroyed. He died on 7 November 1964 in Prague. His papers are held in the National Gallery Archive.

Coins and medals

In a field dominated by Španiel and Josef Šejnost, Beutler made his name only at the end of the 1920s; from the 1930s he worked predominantly on medals. His portraits are as a rule busts in profile facing left. His designs for Czechoslovak coins were never realised. The Munich medal was struck in secret at Kremnica. Other known medals include pieces for Karel Farský (1927), for the 70th birthday of Josef Šusta (1944), for 5 May 1945 and For the Restoration of the Karolinum (1948).

From the work in the AUREA range

The AUREA range includes his bronze Munich medal of 1938 bearing the date 28 October 1938, 55 mm in diameter.