Čapek studied first at the vocational school for weavers in Vrchlabí (1901-1903) and from 1904 at the School of Arts and Crafts in Prague (today the Academy of Art, Architecture and Design in Prague [Vysoká škola umělecko-průmyslová (VŠUP)]. In 1910, he and his brother Karel, with whom he collaborated on artistic and literary projects, went to Paris. The brothers returned from their European trip in 1911, at a time when, in Prague, tensions between the older generation and the upcoming, younger generation in the Mánes Association of Fine Artists, were coming to a head. Most of the young artists, including the Čapek brothers, left the Mánes Association and founded a new group of fine artists. At the end of 1912, however, the Čapek brothers left this group and re-joined the Mánes Association, for which Josef co-edited the magazine Volné směry. After that, he worked in various editorial offices until 1921, when he began his eighteen-year career as an art critic at Lidové noviny. In 1921, together with Jan Zrzavý, he became a member of the artists' group Tvrdošíjní.
Josef and Karel Čapek had a major influence on the cultural and political life of the First Czechoslovak Republic. Through their prolific journalistic activities, they came to be strong upholders of the young democracy. Their matchless influence was enhanced as a result of their long-standing friendship with the country’s first President, Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk,
who was a regular guest at their family villa in the Vinohrady district of Prague.
Josef Čapek worked his way through the periods of Fauvism and Cubism, eventually developing a clear and distinctive style and a lyricism reminiscent of folk art. His simplified figures and urban landscapes set in a flat pictorial space, his sometimes sharply contoured, sometimes rounded, smooth forms, with characteristically subdued colours, emphasise
the psychology of the phenomena depicted. His most important means of expression was the bold contour line and the magical light, which created an atmosphere of mystery and dramatic tension. The symbolism of the colours underlines the content of the painting.
In addition to his work as a fine artist, Josef Čapek also wrote literary and theoretical texts and designed book covers. He was also active as a stage designer. He designed stage scenery not only for the plays of his brother Karel, but also for the National Theatre in Prague. Both brothers also collaborated to create literary works, anthologies of short stories, and plays.
The example of Josef Čapek clearly shows how avant-garde art helped shape the identity of the young Czechoslovak state. Karel, who was President of the international PEN Club,
was considered a modern "state writer" in the truest sense of the word. He was one of the first to recognise the dangers posed by the rise of Hitler in neighbouring Germany, and he became an attentive eyewitness to the collapse of the democratic world, to which he had devoted all his creative energy. He died in December 1938, a few months before the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia. Less than a year later, in September 1939, Josef
Čapek was one of the first members of the Czech intelligentsia to be arrested and sent to the concentration camps of Dachau, Buchenwald, and Sachsenhausen. He died in April 1945
in Bergen-Belsen, just a few days before it was liberated.
b. 1887 in Hronov, Kingdom of Bohemia
d. 1945 in Bergen-Belsen concentration camp