Family

Anna Dvořáková, née Čermáková

17. 6. 1854 - 14. 7. 1931

She was born in Prague, the daughter of goldsmith Jan Jiří Čermák (1820–1873) and Klotilda Čermáková, née Procházková (1823–1903). She had six siblings: Terezie, who later took the name of Koutecká after her marriage (1845–1905), Ignác (1847–1869), Ferdinand (1855–1922), Marie, who later became Štěpánková (1857–1889), Klotilda, later Hertanová (1859–1932) and Josefa, known as Josefina (1849– 1895), who later married Václav Kounic.

Antonín Leopold Dvořák

8. 9. 1841 - 1. 5. 1904

He was born in Nelahozeves, the son of butcher and innkeeper František Dvořák (1814–1894) and Anna Dvořákova, nee Zdeňková (1820–1882). He had eight siblings: František (1843–1888), Aloisie, later Maršnerová (1845–1846), Josef (1848–1920), Adolf (1850–1922), Jana, later Straková (1851–1938), Karel (b. 1855), Marie (1857–1857) and Marie, later Urbanová (1858–1931).

Anna Čermáková and Antonín Dvořák were married on 17 November 1873 at St Peter’s church in Prague. During the first three years of their marriage they had three children - Otakar, Josefa and Růžena – but all of them died in infancy. Over the ten-year period between 1878 and 1888 the Dvořáks had another six children, all of whom survived into adulthood: Otilie, Anna, Magdalena, Antonín, Otakar and Aloisie. The oldest child, Otilie – “Otilka”, inherited her father’s talent for music and several of her short piano pieces have survived to this day. In 1898 she married Dvořák’s pupil, the composer Josef Suk. Their grandson Josef Suk (1929–2011) later became a fine violinist. Otilie died prematurely in 1905 at the age of twenty-seven. Dvořák’s daughter Magdalena (known as “Magda” by her family) was also musical and became a concert singer. Son Otakar was later credited for preserving a large number of recollections about his father, which he wrote in 1960.