This set of eighty-one drawings represents a unique selection of Josef Lada’s journalistic illustrations from a period in which his artistic language was still evolving towards the distinctive style for which he would later become recognised. The majority of the works (seventy-nine) date from 1919–1921, a period immediately following the closure of the satirical magazine Šibeničky in June 1920, where Lada had refined and developed his visual vocabulary.

He soon moved beyond the relatively narrow sphere of humorous periodicals into newspaper publishing: his collaboration with the daily newspaper České slovo belonged to the same phase as his work for the Brno-based Lidové noviny and Prague’s Národní listy. During these difficult and financially uncertain years, he was intensely searching for a form that would strip caricature of its salon sophistication and restore it to a simpler, yet more precise mode of expression.

The drawings have survived in the form in which they were originally submitted for reproduction: executed in ink and pencil on paper and featuring numerous editorial markings and numbering, they bear clear evidence of their direct purpose for print publication. The individual scenes reflect Lada’s characteristic thematic repertoire: interpersonal tensions, social types from middle-class society, grotesque corporeality and situational humour. Recurring motifs – stout male figures, animated gesturing characters and sequential scenes capturing movement in grotesque escalation – reveal how naturally Lada thought in terms of series and cycles, a format ideally suited to the structure of the newspaper page. It is within this group of works that one can observe how his contour line gradually sheds its academic rigidity and acquires the relaxed assurance that would later become associated with his mature style.

Two drawings dated to the 1930s complement the set and demonstrate that Lada’s visual thinking remained consistent in later years, although his style had by then become freer and more self-assured.

The collection comes from the estate of Alois Simonides, former director of Svobodné slovo (the post-war successor to Národní listy), who acquired the drawings directly from the editorial environment and consciously preserved them as original print materials. Some works bear pencil notes on the reverse, commenting on the humorous scenes depicted. The drawings are mounted in an album that allows both sides of each sheet to be viewed. Detailed photographs of all drawings can be found on the websites of KODL Gallery and Artslimit. During consultations, the works were assessed by Prof. J. Zemina and PhDr. R. Michalová, PhD. An expert opinion of PhDr. P. Pečinková, CSc., is attached.