Marko Rašica
(1883-1963)
Melancholia, 1906
oil on cardboard
34.6×34.3 cm
MG-6807

Dubrovnik-born Marko Rašica (1883-1963) graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna in 1907, where he was influenced significantly by Art Nouveau, Gustav Klimt and Prof. Rudolf Bacher. During his stay in Vienna, Rašica turned to melancholic and Dantean themes, which were characteristic of the literary and artistic movement of Symbolism at the turn of the century. Rašica’s Melancholia composition dates from this period, i.e. from 1906. The painting’s square format is divided horizontally into two parts: the upper part is occupied by a red sky at dusk and the lower by stone benches in purple hues. With her head lowered, shoulders drooping and arms crossed in her lap, a nude is seated diagonally (from the upper left to the lower right corner) covering the entire height of the painting and wrapped in a dark shadow suggestive of anxiety. The fact that he exhibited his work at the Imperial Austrian Exhibition in London in 1906 enhanced Rašica’s reputation amongst his colleagues and the Viennese aristocracy. He exhibited in Zagreb, stayed in Ljubljana, Munich, Italy, Dubrovnik, Prague, Paris and the Netherlands, and lived in Zagreb between 1910 and 1917.

Text: Ivana Rončević Elezovi museum advisor of the National Museum of Modern Art © National Museum of Modern Art, Zagreb
Translated by: Ana Janković
Photo: Goran Vranić © National Museum of Modern Art, Zagreb