Petar Dobrović
Fisherman (Worker), 1921
oil on canvas
77 × 69 cm
MG-1472

Petar Dobrović (1890–1942) studied painting in Budapest from 1909 to 1911. In his hometown of Pécs, he maintained close ties with the writer Miroslav Krleža, whose influence proved formative for his artistic development. From 1912 to 1914, Dobrović lived in Paris, where he produced a series of drawings marked by Cézannesque and Cubist influences. In 1926, he co-founded the art group Oblik in Belgrade and later participated in the establishment of the Academy of Fine Arts, where he began teaching in 1937. His summer stays on the Adriatic coast, particularly on Hvar and in Dubrovnik, resulted in numerous landscapes and portraits in oil and watercolour. Dobrović’s painting is especially shaped by the colourist realism of the 1930s.
The painting Fisherman (Worker) from 1921 depicts a young man seated in an armchair, hands folded in his lap, positioned in an interior setting. The figure is rendered in a muted palette, with soft transitions between tones, creating a calm, meditative atmosphere. Dobrović’s approach blends stylistic elements of Realism and Expressionism, and within the context of representing otherness, the work may be viewed as a portrayal of the “other” within the social fabric- of a worker, a fisherman, whose life and labour were often marginalized in art.

Text: Marta Radman, curator of the National Museum of Modern Art © National Museum of Modern Art, Zagreb
Translated by: Marta Radman
Photo: Goran Vranić © National Museum of Modern Art, Zagreb