Helena Bochoráková-Dittrichová Sold at Auction Prices

Painter, Sculptor

Helena Bochoráková-Dittrichová (31 July 1894, Vyškov, Moravia – 28 March 1980, Brno, Czechoslovakia) was a Czech illustrator, graphic novelist, and later a painter. She is widely acknowledged as being the first female graphic novelist

Bochoráková-Dittrichová was born in a middle-class family in Vyškov, Moravia, in the Czech Republic. She grew up in the nearby town of Haná and moved with her family to Brno in 1913, where she spent the rest of her life.[2]

In 1919 she began studying painting and drawing at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague. Upon graduating, in 1923, she received a Ministry of Education scholarship to study modern printmaking in Paris. It was there that she discovered the woodcut novels of pioneering Belgian artist Frans Masereel, who greatly influenced her future work.[4]

Between 1924 and 1930, Bochoráková-Dittrichová had regular exhibitions at the Salon in Paris, as well exhibiting in Antwerp (1925), Philadelphia (1926), Zurich (1927), Buenos Aires (1928), and Vienna (1934). She was a passionate traveller and journeyed extensively throughout Europe, Russia and the United States until the outbreak of the Second World War.

She died in Brno at the age 85. She remains known as one of the leading printmakers and illustrators of the Czech Republic. Her art is showcased in many collections in the Czech Republic, including the Moravian Gallery, Museum Vyskovska, the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague, and the Brno City Museum.