Tombstone by Stanislav Sucharda
In 2017 the Czech National Trust became involved in a Prague Cemetery Services project which enables the general public to “adopt” eminent tombstones at numerous Prague cemeteries. As part of the project, the CNT adopted the tomb of Marie Dostálová, designed by a famous Czech sculptor Stanislav Sucharda, which can be found at Olšany Cemetery in Prague (located at VI, 10b, 21).
Marie Dostálová (1877 – 1903) was a painter whose production focused mainly on landscape paintings. Her family had an artistic background and Marie herself studied painting at Ferdinand Engelmüller’s. Her brother Adolf Bohumil was a writer, brother Karel was an actor and a director, her sister Hana was also a painter and her sister Leopolda was a famous actress at the Czech National Theatre. Marie Dostálová died before her 26th birthday after a protracted illness.
Her tomb is the work of Stanislav Sucharda (1866-1912), a Czech sculptor and the author of many statues and impressive monuments (such as the František Palacký Monument in Prague), medals and memorial tablets. During his life, Stanislav Sucharda received multiple international awards of great significance (such as i) 1904: silver and gold medal at the World Exhibition in St. Louis, third prize at the Vienna Museum of Applied Arts competition, small gold medal at an artistic exhibition at Glasplast in Munich, ii) 1910: gold medal at the international exhibition of medal art in Brussels, iii) 1913: gold medal at an international exhibition of medal art in Gent).