Antonín Popp is considered to be one of the most productive sculptors of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He participated in the figural and ornamental decorative work of many significant public buildings, including Smetana House in Litomyšl.
In 1866 he graduated from the Royal Empire Grammar School in Prague and continued his education with his father the sculptor Arnošt Popp. He attended the Jednota Polytechnic College for the Promotion of Industry in Bohemia, and the Prague Academy. He also undertook study trips throughout European capital cities. From 1892, he worked as a teacher of modelling at the Czech Polytechnic in Prague, becoming an Adjunct Professor there four years later.
His sculpting activities commenced in 1871 with the execution of the ornamental decoration of the Neo-renaissance Smíchov Town Hall in Prague according to designs by the architect Josef Schulze, with whom Popp also cooperated on the decorative and figural ornamentation of the Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague. Antonín Popp's most significant work is held in the National Museum and includes 32 portrait medals of Czech kings, busts of museum sponsors and statues of František Palacký and Jan Amos Komenský in the Pantheon. He is the creator of a range of busts and statues, as well as many tombstones in the Vyšehrad and Olšanský Cemeteries.
Popp worked in Litomyšl in 1904 where he participated in the exterior decoration of Smetana House, built in Neo-renaissance style with Secession features. Here he created the group sculpture on the attic storey of the main and garden facades. Before his work in Litomyšl, he had participated in the decorative work for the City Theatre in Plzeň, which served as a pattern for the construction of Smetana House. For Plzeň's Měšťanská Beseda building, completed in 1901, he created a figural group sculpture incorporating the town emblem whose composition and theme reflect his Litomyšl sculptures.
1874
Allegorical statues of Science and Labour for the building of the Czech University ČVUT in Prague, Karlovo Square 13, Prague
1892
Decorative and sculptural ornamentation of town hall in Domažlice
náměstí Míru 1, Domažlice
1894
Sculpture for the hall of the Prague Town Savings Bank
Česká spořitelna building, Rytířská Street 536, Prague
1899
Decoration of the facade of the Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague
17. listopadu Street 2, Prague
1901
Caryatids of J. K. Tyl Theatre, Smetana Gardens 16, Plzeň
- Jan Fedorčák, Smetanův dům v Litomyšli v kontextu vývoje architektury na přelomu 19. a 20. století (bakalářská práce), Institut restaurování a konzervačních technik Litomyšl (dnes Univerzita Pardubice – Fakulta restaurování), Litomyšl 2005.
- Rumjana Dačevová et al., Karáskova galerie, Praha 2012.
- Petr Domanický – Jaroslava Jedličková, Plzeň v době secese, Plzeň 2005.
- Jindřich Lněnička, Smetanův dům 1905–2005, Litomyšl 2005, s. 23.
- EPch [Emanuel Poche], heslo Popp, Antonín, in: Anděla Horová (ed.), Nová encyklopedie českého výtvarného umění II, N–Ž, Praha 1995, s. 633–634.
