Josef Lada facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Josef Lada
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Josef Lada, 1940
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| Born | 17 December 1887 Hrusice, Kingdom of Bohemia
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| Died | 14 December 1957 (aged 69) |
| Occupation | Illustrator, Writer |
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Josef Lada (born 17 December 1887 in Hrusice, Bohemia – 14 December 1957 in Prague, buried at Olšany Cemetery) was a Czech painter, illustrator and writer. He is best known as the illustrator of Jaroslav Hašek's World War I novel The Good Soldier Švejk, having won the Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis in 1963.
The asteroid 17625 Joseflada has been named after him.
Life
Born in the small village of Hrusice in a cobbler's family, he went to Prague at the age of 14 to become an apprentice binder. Entirely self-taught, he created his own style as a caricaturist for newspapers, and later as an illustrator. He produced landscapes, created frescoes and designed costumes for plays and films. Over the years he created a series of paintings and drawings depicting traditional Czech occupations, and wrote and illustrated the adventures of Mikeš, a little black cat who could talk.
Lada produced nearly 600 cartoons of the Švejk characters, depicting Austria-Hungary officers and civil servants. All subsequent editions of Švejk used Lada's illustrations, except for the 2008/2009 Czech edition illustrated by Petr Urban.
Books in English translation
As Illustrator
Gallery
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Birthplace of Josef Lada
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Lada's villa in Hrusice today houses his museum
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One of the cartoons from The Good Soldier Švejk
