Tag: 1913.

Otto Antonini, In Front of Siena Cathedral, 1913

Otto Antonini
In Front of Siena Cathedral, 1913
oil on canvas, 60 x 89.6 cm
MG-707

Otto Antonini (1892–1959) was born into an artistic family. His father, Marko (Gemona, 1849 – Zagreb, 1937), moved from Italy to Zagreb in 1875 after completing his studies in painting in Rome. He was commissioned to restore frescoes at Count Arthur Nugent’s (1825–1897) estate in Oroslavje and to paint the castle in Trsat. Marko Antonini eventually settled permanently in Croatia, where he created numerous paintings, portraits, and frescoes in churches throughout Croatia and Bosnia, as well as stage designs for the old theatre in Mark’s Square, Zagreb. After completing his studies at the Advanced School of Arts and Crafts in Zagreb in September 1913, and as a scholarship holder from the Society of Arts of the Bishop Posilović Foundation, Marko’s son, Otto Antonini, travelled to Siena to study al fresco church painting at the Accademia Reale di belle Arti. He stayed there until October of the following year. This journey to Siena marked Antonini’s first significant travel experience, and according to Željka Kolveshi’s research, it was the only one directly connected to his formal education. Later in life, he engaged in extensive personal and professional travel, as documented in his private travel records. By the end of his time in Siena, Antonini had acquired Italian citizenship through his father, Marko. Following in his father’s footsteps, after returning to Zagreb, Antonini created frescoes in the churches of St. Vincent and St. Francis. However, he was particularly renowned as an illustrator for newspapers. He played a prominent role in the magazine Svijet from 1926 to 1932, serving as editor, and also contributed to the satirical magazine Šišmiš between 1915 and 1917. Otto Antonini held his only solo exhibition during his lifetime at Salon Ullrich in Zagreb in 1932, where he showcased mainly female portraits, along with some landscapes and illustrations for the cover of Svijet.
In the horizontal composition of the painting In Front of Siena Cathedral, the plain air scene is rendered in traditional technique of oil on canvas, capturing a ‘photographic’ slice of urban life. The scene is defined by the city’s architecture: the left edge is framed by the corner of a shadowed building, while two-thirds of the painting, towards the upper and right sides, depict a fragment of the cathedral’s façade and side wall. The depth of the third plane is emphasised by a house façade in the background, located in the upper half of the left third of the painting. With a depiction of moving staffage in the lower third, life unfolds on the square in front of the cathedral: commotion, bustle, and hustle. The main theme of the painting, as suggested by its title, depicts urban daily life on the square in front of the church. The framed section of the cathedral and the façade of an anonymous building in the background serve as a backdrop for civic activities. The 1913 work also stands out due to its use of a so-called frog perspective, highlighting fragmented details of the city’s urban structure as the stage for everyday human interactions. The treatment of lighting is particularly notable: the characteristic Tuscan white and green marble of the cathedral’s façade is shown bathed in sunlight, occupying the upper two-thirds of the painting, while the main focus – the bustling square – is presented in shadow beneath the building in the lower third. The artist employs a strategy of a sort of contra luce, characterised by a distinct expressive quality. The detail of the backlighting on the corner fragment of the anonymous building continues along the left edge of the painting, creating boundaries for the scene. This shaded ‘border’ along the bottom and left side of the painting, from which the cathedral emerges in full light, offers a possible counterinterpretation where, contrary to the title of the painting, the monumental cathedral itself takes on a portrait-like form. Additionally, the fragmented depiction of the façade further accentuates the sense of its grandeur. Through the intentional omission of certain elements, the idea of the building’s scale is implied, which the observer completes with their imagination.
This genre scene of bourgeois life from the early 20th century was painted just before the outbreak of World War I, marking the end of the belle époque era, which adds an additional layer of interpretative significance. The relaxed depiction of bourgeois leisure during a time of stability and prosperity is soon replaced by the calamities of the 20th century. Moreover, contrary to the suggestion of the painting’s title, it becomes a valid interpretation to see the painting as a portrait of the cathedral, symbolising the divine and spiritual, that rises from the shadows of earthly events into the light (of hope). Rendered with skilled academic realism, featuring an engaging composition with modern cuts accentuated by architectural fragments, this painting serves as a valuable document of Antonini’s time in Siena.

Text: PhD Ivana Rončević Elezović, museum consultant of the National Museum of Modern Art © National Museum of Modern Art, Zagreb
Translated by: Robertina Tomić
Photo: Goran Vranić © National Museum of Modern Art, Zagreb

Nasta Rojc, Female Portrait, 1913

Nasta Rojc
Female Portrait, 1913
oil on canvas
126.7 x 99.8 cm
MG-546

Nasta Rojc (1883–1964) studied painting under Oton Iveković in Zagreb and at the Academy in Munich from 1903 to 1907, with professors Heinrich Knirr and Hugo von Habermann. During her time there, she interacted with Miroslav Kraljević, Josip Račić, and Vladimir Becić, so her artwork can potentially be interpreted within the context of the so-called Munich Circle. Between 1907 and 1910, she resided in Vienna, studying painting under Ludwig Michalek and Friedrich König. Upon her return to Zagreb, she resumed working in the private studio of Oton Iveković. She spent the years 1926/27 in London and Reading. She held solo exhibitions in Vienna, Zagreb, and London. During this period, she also took part in exhibitions organised by the Croatian Society of Arts, Lada Association, the Women’s Art Club, the Little Entente of Women, and others. She was married to the painter Branko Šenoa. Together with Lina Virant Crnčić, she was instrumental in co-founding the Women’s Art Club in Zagreb in 1928. Beyond the artistic quality of her work, Nasta Rojc made significant contributions to the emancipation of women in the arts in Croatia.
Rendered in a dark palette, with lighter flesh tones highlighting the face and hands – bare up to the elbows and folded in the lap – this evocative portrait of a young woman captures the Symbolist atmosphere of the turn of the century. The expression’s intensity is amplified by the straightforward, symmetrical composition, featuring a seated female figure centrally positioned and depicted frontally, with a piercing gaze confidently directed at the observer.

Text: Ivana Rončević Elezović PhD, museum consultant of the National Museum of Modern Art © National Museum of Modern Art, Zagreb
Translated by: Robertina Tomić
Photo: Goran Vranić © National Museum of Modern Art, Zagreb

Ivan Tišov, Male Nude (at the Academie Julian), 1913

Ivan Tišov
(1870-1928)
Male Nude (at the Academie Julian), 1913
oil on canvas
72.5 x 50.2 cm
MG-6511

Ivan Tišov (1870–1928) graduated from the School of Crafts in Zagreb, where he later worked as a professor. He then studied at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Vienna and the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich. During 1913/14, Tišov also attended the Académie Julian in Paris. He painted primarily in the style of Academic Realism, with inclinations towards Pleinairism and Symbolism as was the spirit of the times. Among Tišov’s most significant public commissions are decorations of the “Golden Hall” at the Department of Religious Affairs and Education in Zagreb (1893–96), then the foyer of the Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb (1905), the National and University Library (1914), and he also painted the interior of his own house in Zagreb.
Tišov’s painting oeuvre is rendered in the style of the skilful, technically solid Academic Realism. The same can be said of the Male Nude (at the Academie Julian) created in 1913. It is a tonal painting rendered in a dark gamut of brown hues with an interesting solution of depicting a full-length figure of the male nude from the back in three-quarter view, where the only line that emerges from the shadow and stretches in full height across the middle of the painting is the left side of the man’s body.

Text: Ivana Rončević Elezović, museum consultant of the National Museum of Modern Art © National Museum of Modern Art, Zagreb
Translated by: Robertina Tomić
Photo: Goran Vranić © National Museum of Modern Art, Zagreb

Petar Dobrović, Worker (Self-Portrait?), 1913

Petar Dobrović
Worker (Self-Portrait?), 1913
oil on canvas
99.8 x 79.7 cm
MG-1469

Petar Dobrović (1890–1942) studied painting in Budapest from 1909 to 1911, where he has shown his works for the first time at the Museum of Fine Arts in 1911. In his native Pécs, he socialised with writer Miroslav Krleža. He spent the period from 1912 to 1914 in Paris, when he created a series of drawings influenced by Cézanne and Cubism. In 1926 in Belgrade, he was one of the founding members of the Form (Oblik in Croatian) Art Group, and he also participated in the founding of the Belgrade Academy of Fine Arts, where he worked as a professor since 1937. His summers spent on the island of Hvar and in Dubrovnik, where he created a series of landscapes and portraits in oil and watercolour techniques are significant. Dobrović’s painting was particularly marked by the colouristic realism of the 1930s.
Dobrović painted the half-length portrait of a young man in a rather theatrical, almost expressionist manner. The pose and energetic gesture of the character’s raised, outstretched arms, bent at the elbows, contribute to the expressive tension of the picture. The portrait of the Worker (Self-Portrait?) is rendered in a dark register of brown and grey hues, with cubic, broken forms as an echo of the historical avant-gardes, still topical in 1913 when the painting was created. In addition to the penetrating gaze, aimed directly at the observer, the pronounced drama of the composition is achieved by lighting, with a strong contrast between light and dark and diagonal penetrations in the scheme of the composition. The silhouette of the person portrayed is additionally highlighted with a sort of ‘illuminated’ outline that encircles it and emerges from the surrounding darkness of the background.

Text: Ivana Rončević Elezović, Museum Counselor at the National Museum of Modern Art © National Museum of Modern Art, Zagreb, 2023
Foto: Goran Vranić © National Museum of Modern Art, Zagreb, 2023

Ferdo Ćus, A Head of a Boy, 1913

Ferdo Ćus
(1891-1914)
A Head of a Boy, 1913
wood
MG-1331

Ferdo Ćus graduated in sculpture from the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb in 1910 (mentored by Robert Frangeš-Mihanović and Rudolf Valdec). In 1913 and 1914, he continued his studies at the woodcarving school in St. Christina in Tyrol, Austria. Recognised as a talented sculptor while still a student, in 1910 he sculpted bronze statues of boys on turtles for the fountain in Petrinja, and in 1911 he modelled independently the groups of owls mounted on the roof of the building that housed the University Library in Zagreb, today the Croatian State Archives.
Due to his early death, Ćus’s oeuvre is not extensive. Nevertheless, it reflects his strong artistic personality as realised in his wooden sculptures of saints, human figures and animalistic motifs of thematic diversity and sensibility.
Ćus’s children’s portraits, such as A Head of a Boy (1913), are modelled softly within their closed volume. Curiously, the surfaces of the boy’s hair, smooth with solid edges, are modelled in the manner of Facet Cubism.

Text: Tatijana Gareljić, 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

Maksimilijan Vanka, An Old Woman with a Dutch Hat, 1913

Maksimilijan Vanka
An Old Woman with a Dutch Hat, 1913
oil on hardboard
50×50 cm
MG-4304

Maksimilijan Vanka (1889-1962) studied painting in Zagreb with painter Bela Čikoš Sesija and in Brussels. He was a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb until 1934, after which he moved to the United States. He was an important member of the Group of Four, together with painters Ljubo Babić, Vladimir Becić and Jerolim Miše from 1926 to 1929, when the Group of Four transformed into the famous Group of Three after Vanka left. He became a member of the Yugoslav Academy of Sciences and Arts in 1929. Large-format compositions depicting folklore and religious themes, colourful landscapes in watercolour, portraits and self-portraits comprise a significant portion of his oeuvre. He also did fresco painting and sculpture. Vanka’s designs for the decorations and costumes of Krešimir Baranović’s ballet Licitar Heart are particularly interesting.
Vanka painted his An Old Woman with a Dutch Hat in 1913 at the age of 24. Vanka’s entire oeuvre is known for its distinctive Realism, which was often colourist in nature. Although the colours in which he painted the old woman are more restrained, there are striking yellow highlights present on her face. The deformities of the old woman’s facial features, her sagging shoulders, penetrating gaze and expression of worry and fear, coupled with Vanka’s accentuated brushstrokes, contribute to the expressionist quality of the composition. The motif of the Dutch hat and Vanka’s placement of the portrayed bust indoors are a deliberate reference to the great tradition of modern Dutch painting.

Text: Ivana Rončević Elezović, museum consultant 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

Ferdo Kovačević, Before the Storm, 1913

Ferdo Kovačević
Before the Storm, 1913
oil on canvas 80.6 x 114.6 cm
MG-470

After having graduated from the School of Crafts in Zagreb, Ferdo Kovačević (1870 –1927) moved to Vienna where he studied painting at the Karl Karger School of Arts and Crafts. He was one of the founders of the Society of Croatian Artists in 1897 and he exhibited at the Croatian Salon in 1898. He participated in Izidor Kršnjavi’s program of decorating the Department of Religious Affairs and Education and the then building of National and University Library (today the Croatian State Archives) with vedute of Croatian cities on the supraporte (overdoors). He has worked as a professor at the School of Crafts in Zagreb since 1905, and then at the Academy since 1917. He was a corresponding member of the Yugoslav Academy of Sciences and Arts (JAZU). Since 1894, he has exhibited with the circle around Bukovac, and he has also participated in exhibitions of the Lada Association of South Slav Artists and the Croatian Art Society.

In his early works, Kovačević adheres to the symbolist expression, however after a crucial meeting with Vlaho Bukovac he changed direction towards pleinairisme and realism. His specificity as a painter in Croatian art is his selection of the continental Sava landscape as a theme, which he paints in countless variations. In the painting Before the Storm from 1913, he uses an expressive deep tonal colourway and the compositional means of diagonal white posts on the surface of the water from the lower left corner towards the centre of the painting, occupied by a bush on the edge of the river bank, thus inviting the observer into the drama of the sky before the storm.

Text: Ivana Rončević Elezović, Museum advisor of the National Museum of Modern Art © National Museum of Modern Art, Zagreb
Translated by: Robertina Tomić
Photo: Goran Vranić © National Museum of Modern Art, Zagreb