Josef Vokalek ( 3. 1. 1887 in Velke Cakovice u Prahy - 30. 6. 1969 in Sedlec ) painter and teacher

He graduated from the first Czech secondary school in Resslova street in Prague. Since his childhood, his artistic talent has prompted him to pursue painting. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague but did not finish it and went to study in Paris in 1909. He enrolled here at the École des Beaux Arts - he managed to obtain a scholarship for a citizen of the c. He studied under Professor Henri Martin and became acquainted with the technique of pastel painting. It then became his favorite technique. He was also passionate about French painting. After a year he returned to Prague and studied figurative painting at the Academy of Fine Arts under Professor Krattner ( 1914 ) . Here he met V. Rabas, with whom he had a lifelong friendship. During the First World War he enlisted, but his regiment is soon transferred to the Russian front, where he was wounded. After returning from the war, he decided to accept an offer to become a professor of drawing in high school. He worked briefly in Prague, then in Nymburk. At this time, he definitely moved away from figural work and focused on the landscape, painting mostly the Elbe. In his freelance work he devoted himself to figural and landscape design, realistically depicting the edges of forests, groups of trees, knolls and birches.
In 1925 he spent his holidays in Cesky Meran in the mill near Vanek between Uhrice and Jetrichovice. Vokalek enthused the landscape with his pastels, but he also painted St. Anna into the niche of the chapel. Since then he spent the summer months here, retired in autumn and spring. Member of the Myslbek Association of Fine Artists since 1934. He exhibited independently in 1927 in Podebrady and 1934 in Prague and collectively at the Art Harvest in 1951 and with the group of the Union of Czechoslovak Fine Artists Ales in 1952 and 1954.