Bedřich Šimonovský

Life and work

According to the historical membership list of the Mánes Union of Fine Arts he was born on 19 November 1871 and was a member of the society from 1896 to 1905. The collection lexicon of the Regional Museum in Litomyšl lists him as a Czech sculptor and medallist and leaves the year of death open. An index of Prague registers of the Czechoslovak Church (Smíchov, 1921–1933) records a sculptor and teacher Bedřich Šimonovský with the dates 1871–1932; other sources do not adopt this, so the date of death cannot be regarded as firmly established. Details of his training and of the extent of his sculptural work could not be verified in the available sources.

His membership of Mánes during its most expansive years places Šimonovský within the generation that after 1890 sought to modernise Czech sculpture and applied art. In this period the medal and the plaquette were a favoured means by which societies, towns and private persons commemorated anniversaries and figures of national life.

Coins and medals

In the numismatic record Šimonovský appears as the author of individual cast and struck medals and plaquettes, mostly with portrait subjects. Auction catalogues give his year of death as uncertain, and his pieces are often dated only by subject, since many bear no date. No catalogue of his medallic work has yet been published.

From the work in the AUREA range

The AUREA range includes his undated medal with the portrait of Jindřich Fügner, co-founder and first chairman of Sokol. The medal is catalogued to 1919; it is a patinated zinc cast 60 mm in diameter. The subject reflects the lasting interest in the Tyrš and Fügner tradition in the first years of the Czechoslovak Republic.