Jan Josef à  tursa (15 May 1880 â 2 May 1925) was a Czech sculptor, one of founders of modern Czech sculpture.
à  tursa was born on 15 May 1880 in Nové MÃÂsto na MoravÃÂ. He studied masonry and sculpture in Hoà Âice and worked as stone cutter. Later, he studied at the Academy of Arts (AVU) in Prague under professor Josef Myslbek, a known sculptor. As a result of very rigorous criticism from Myslbek, à  tursa destroyed most of his early works.
à  tursa was not influenced by Czech National Revival as the older sculptors but tried to find his own way. The female body was his frequent motif, for example in Before taking bath, 1906 or The Melancholy Girl, 1906. A monumental couple of figures decorates the pylons of Hlávka Bridge in Prague. In addition to stone and bronze he also used plaster and wax. Later, he was influenced by Cubism. Portrait painting was an important part of his works.
The tragedy of World War I (he had served at the front) affected à  tursa's work. The most famous work of this period is The Wounded: early version, final version (1921), more details.
The inspiration for the Burial in the Carpathians sculpture was a photograph from a Carpathian battlefield. The original group in Austrian uniforms was remade in the 1920s into a memorial of victims of World War I and placed in the village Pà ÂedmÃÂà Âice nad Jizerou, with copies in MÃÂstek and in Nové MÃÂsto na MoravÃÂ.
In 1922âÂÂ1924, à  tursa served as Rector of the Academy of Arts (AVU). à  tursa suffered from the effects of syphilis and on 2 May 1925, faced with increasing pain, he killed himself in his atelier in Prague at age 44.
à  tursa's nephew Jià ÂÃ à  tursa was the architect of Stalin's Monument (Prague).