Lenka Merglová Pánková
“Oblomov” from Plzeň Travelling to Paris and St. Petersburg
Architect Josef Škorpil (1856-1931), the founder and first director of the Museum of Decorative Arts in Plzeň, came from the Jireček and Škorpil family of Vysoké Mýto. The journeys of the individual family members led to Prague, Vienna, Paris, St. Petersburg, Sofia, Varna and the Crimea and left a significant mark everywhere. Inspired by the example of his brothers, Josef left for Paris with the intention of studying at an art school. In the end, he settled for a position as a draughtsman in the technical department of the central commission responsible for preparing the Austrian exposition at the World Exhibition held in Paris in 1878. He stayed in Paris for almost a year and met many Czech artists who were staying there at the time. Fortuitously, he also met Czech physician Emanuel Engel (1844-1907), who lived in Paris and did his best to help his Czech friends. For both of them, the moments spent in their dream city were full of new and interesting experiences, though there were also many personal disappointments. Both of them also travelled, on separate journeys, to Russia, brought there by different ideas and plans. Eventually both of them settled back home in Bohemia, where they managed to achieve important positions and social prestige. Their personal correspondence shows that their lives were not easy and their path to success was not without its pitfalls. The paper draws mainly on the written estate of the family of J. Škorpil, which is archived in the Regional Museum in Vysoké Mýto, and the written estate of E. Engel, stored in the Literary Archive of the Memorial of National Literature in Prague.
Keywords: travelling abroad to pursue career - Czechs in Paris - Czechs in Russia - Emanuel Engel - Josef Škorpil
design by Bedřich Vémola
