Josef Čapek - Maska (1926)

Josef Čapek (1887–1945) was a student of Cubism, which combined with his own playful style, exhibited a primitive note in his paintings. Josef Čapek is also famous for penning the Czech children’s classic Doggie and Pussycat. Josef Čapek teamed up with his brother Karel Čapek during the initial years of his writing career. First, they cooperated on The Luminous Depths (1916); then the prosaic Krakonoš Garden (1918) the allegorical drama From The Life of Insects (1922), and the utopian Adam The Creator (1927). While helping his brother pen the drama R.U.R, Josef coined the word “robot.” Although his brother Karel is usually noted as the man who coined the word Robot, it was actually Josef; Karel introduced the word Robot into literature. The brothers were very close. They lived together for a time. When Josef was let go from the Národní listy newspaper, Karel left, too. His younger brother accepted the post with Lidové Noviny on the condition that Josef could also contribute to the daily. Josef wrote for Lidové Noviny from 1921 to 1939. Due to his and his brother’s negative attitude towards Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Regime, Josef was arrested shortly after the German invasion in 1939, and was sent to the Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp where he died in 1945. While in Bergen-Belsen he wrote a collection called Poems from a Concentration Camp.