Over the Comrade's Grave

Josef Mařatka's sculpture Over the Comrade's Grave was designed as a reaction to the tragedy in 1913 when the structure of a building collapsed in Prague's Štěpánská Street and buried several workers. Mařatka, known for his social awareness, designed a sculpture of a worker in despair, which he donated to the bereaved. The work was subsequently distributed as glazed ceramics, and the proceeds were intended for the victims' families. Bronze castings were also created in parallel but on a smaller scale without an original plinth. The themes of death and burial appear throughout Mařatka's oeuvre, strongly inspired by his personal experiences and contemporary events.

Lit: A. Masaryková: Josef Mařatka, Prague 1958, p. 47, fig. 82 (plaster model with the title on the plinth).