Schikaneder attended the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague in the studio of Josef Matyáš Trenk- wald (1870-1878). He subsequently studied in Munich with Otto Seitze. In 1880 he and Emanuel Krescenc Liška jointly took part in a competition for the decoration of the Royal Box at the National Theatre. The artists eventually received the commission for the decoration of three friezes for the gentlemen’s salon of the Royal Box, which were replaced by the work of Václav Brožík after the fire that engulfed the theatre in 1881. From 1885 he worked as an assistant to František Ženíšek at the School of Applied Arts in Prague, becoming professor there in 1894. Typical of his early works was depiction of the world of labourers, beggars and above all abandoned working women in difficult circumstances, and his portrayals demonstrated a strong social awareness. The high point of his socially critical works was Murder in the House, a painting that achieved recognition at the Jubilee Exhibition in Prague in 1891. In the years 1891–1896 his oeuvre displayed a search for spiritual peace and harmony. He subsequently devoted himself to the theme of the city, depicting its hidden recesses and the isolation of individuals. He produced atmospheric paintings of Prague in seasonal transformations. These were intimate studies that were enhanced by the presence of isolated figures of late evening pedestrians, often women, by the light of oil lamps in a misty haze.