Josip Račić
Lady in White, 1907
oil on canvas
100 × 73 cm
MG-744

Josip Račić (1885–1908) was born on March 22, 1885, in the village of Horvati on the southwestern outskirts of Zagreb. He attended elementary school and the Royal Real Gymnasium in Zagreb, and at fifteen began training as a lithographer in the workshop of Vladimir Rožankowski. In 1904 he moved to Munich to study at Anton Ažbe’s private painting school. In 1905 he spent a period in Berlin working as a lithographic draughtsman, and later that year enrolled at the Munich Academy of Fine Arts, studying under Johann and Ludwig Herterich and Hugo von Habermann.
In Munich, Račić shared classes with Vladimir Becić, Miroslav Kraljević, and Oskar Herman, a group later known as Die Kroatische Schule (The Croatian School) or, in Croatian art history, the Munich Circle. His life ended tragically in Paris at the age of twenty-three.
Painted in 1907 during his Munich studies, Lady in White is a portrait executed in the spirit of Old European painting. The model’s pose is simple, the color palette restrained, and subtle tonal gradations convey a strong sense of volume. The sitter, Fanny, was the daughter of the owner of a vegetarian restaurant frequented by the Croatian students in Munich and was reportedly the object of Račić’s affection. This portrait is considered one of the artist’s most significant works.

Text: Tihana Galić, Curator, National Museum of Modern Art © National Museum of Modern Art, Zagreb
Photo: Goran Vranić © National Museum of Modern Art, Zagreb