Jaroslav Čermák was born on August 1, 1830 in Prague and died on April 23, 1878 in Paris. He was a Czech realist and romantic painter. He was born into the family of doctor Jan Čermák and his wife Josef Veselá. From an early age he showed artistic and musical talent. As a child, he suffered a severe hip injury, which prevented him from moving normally for several years and spent a lot of time in bed, which may have aroused his interest in drawing. After graduating from elementary and secondary school, he became a student of Christian Ruben at the Prague Academy at the age of thirteen. Dissatisfied with the academic character of teaching according to plaster models, he left in 1849 via Munich, Dresden, Berlin and Düsseldorf to Antwerp, where he enrolled in the painting academy in G. Wappers’ studio.(source: Wikipedia)