- Condition: **
- Year: 2020-10-21
The Holy Night (nativity scene with a night watchman) by Josef Lada
Josef Lada was a Czech painter, illustrator, stage designer, and author. He was born in the small village of Hrusice into a cobbler’s family to Josef Lada and his wife Alžběta née Janovská as the youngest of four children. Hrusice and the surrounding area inspired many of Lada’s pictures. He worked as a cartoonist, illustrator, and author. He wrote and illustrated numerous children stories and books, such as the adventures of Mikeš, a black tomcat who could talk, or the smart fox. He is best known as the illustrator of Jaroslav Hašek’s World War I novel The Good Soldier Švejk, Karel Havlíček Borovský’s Tirol Laments, King Lávra, Epigrams, Erben’s and Drda’s fairy tales, etc. Lada also designed stage sets, scenes and costumes for plays and operas performed by the National Theatre. He was the main designer of the successful Czech film directed by Josef Mach, Hrátky s čertem (Playing with the Devil), adapted from a theatre play of the same name based on Jan Drda’s fairy tale. Together with Karel Čapek, Vítězslav Nezval, and Vladislav Vančura, Josef Lada was a co-founder of the so-called modern fairy tale in Czech fiction. He received the National Artist award in 1947 for his work.
The stamp also comes out as part of a print sheet of 9 stamps and 12 coupons with 2 different motifs – Children at a Christmas Tree, and A Girl with a Czech Christmas Cake.