Continuing my series of great ‘regional’ painters (previous ones were Holland, California, Italy, and Russia), here are a few great painters from Croatia.
Vlaho Bukovac
Bukovac was born in a small town on the coast south of Dubrovnik to an Italian father and Croatian mother. He studied in Paris with Cabanel and worked in Zagreb, Belgrade and Prague. His life story is quite interesting and included a stint in a reform school in New York and painting trains in Peru (more here).
While famous for his large Salon-style pieces and portraits, he also painted a lot of beautiful plein air sketches.
Gundulićev San (Gundulic’s Dream). 1897
Baron Ljudevit Vranyczany. 1898
Courtyard in Cavtat. 1899
This nude reminded me of his teacher’s famous painting:
Reclining Nude. c. 1900
Alexandre Cabanel. The Birth of Venus, 1864
Miroslav Kraljević was only 27 when he died of tuberculosis. He studied in Munich and Vienna. (He kinda looks like Valdemar Lethin).
Self-portrait with Dog. 1910
Unfortunately the above image quality is rather poor. Below is a great detail of the dog from Croatian painter Valentino Radman’s blog:
Self-portrait with Dog (detail).
Josip Račić also died very young, only 23, but is considered one of the most important modern Croatian painters. He was part of the ‘Munich School’ with Kraljević and a couple of others.
Self Portrait (detail). 1906
Portrait of the Artist’s Sister. 1907
Pont des Arts. 1900
Another good 20th century painter who’s work is in the museum here in Zagreb, but is hard to find online, is Vladimir Filakovac. Valentino Radman has a couple of blog posts on him here and here.
Other interesting historic Croatian painters are Čikoš Sesija, Robert Auer, Mato Celestin Medović, and Mirko Rački.
Interesting to read the first guy worked in Peru. I think I may have seen some of his work here also. Would be great to see the original trains!
There was an exhibit not so long ago here of the last Peruvian Academic Painter, Carlos Baca-Flor.
Excellent post. Thank you for the on going education.