the leader of the younger men. The Impressionism of his precursors did not long hold sway over him, and the ordinary fetters were soon burst by his vigorous temperament, his powerful impulse towards synthesis. After a few experiments in which the wilful spirit of his youth had revealed itself, he developed more self-control, and in his “Girl Brooding” proclaimed his final break with the impressionists. Already a solid consistency of form replaces the lively play of light and shade recommended by the “pleinairists” of sculpture. From the outset, a lyric note is struck, a note peculiarly his own, artless and graceful, entirely original at that period. The young artist even forsakes the old processes, going straight to the material—a hard material for choice—without any preliminaries, eliciting from the stone, with the strokes of his chisel, a fresh, almost primitive representation of humanity. He avoids the types that reflect the highly-strung mood of the age, and chooses, others, of a fine animal health and a natural rusticity. All the female nudes of this period are of the same family. The same healthy flesh, the same sensual beauty appears in all the works, in stone for the most part, that follow each other after 1908, forming a storehouse of natural and unconventional poses. They are all summed up in that “Eve” in the Munich Glyptothek, a sort of symbol of ripe feminine beauty. For a time he even studied the daring poses of the Oriental dancer, Salamit Rahu, but this escapade in the direction of sensuality did not last long. The marble entitled “Life Breaking Out,” now in the National Gallery of Vienna, shows us Štursa reverting to the dreams of his youth. At this date he received some orders for decorative work, and he at once knew how to meet the demands of the monumental style. Thus the statues of “Day” and “Night,” intended to adorn the entrance to a villa, show a strong cohesion of form and an admirably balanced rhythm of outline and masses. At
