Tag: 1917.

Petar Dobrović, Portrait of Elza Szüts, 1917

Petar Dobrović
Portrait of Elza Szüts, 1917
oil on canvas
149.2 x 128.8 cm
MG-1482

Petar Dobrović (Pécs, 1890 – Belgrade, 1942) was a prominent painter who received his formal artistic education at the Academy of Fine Arts in Budapest, graduating in 1911. Initially influenced by Impressionism, his stay in Paris from 1912 to 1914 exposed him to the emerging movements of the time, such as Cubism, Cézannism, and Expressionism. Actively involved in avant-garde art circles in Hungary, Dobrović was arrested in Pécs in 1918 due to his political engagement. After a brief return to Paris, he settled in Novi Sad, where he worked as a secondary school drawing teacher, and from 1921 lived in Belgrade, teaching at the School of Fine Arts and exhibiting regularly. He was one of the founders of the group Oblik, which, between 1926 and 1939, advocated for the autonomy of artistic aesthetics and the principles of modernism.
Portrait of Elza Szüts is one of Dobrović’s key works created during a period of strong avant-garde and Expressionist influence. The composition centers on a seated woman whose gaze, directed toward the viewer, conveys a sense of emotional distance and inner tension, achieving striking psychological depth. The decorative background, featuring botanical motifs and a red drapery above the sitter, introduces visual dynamism into the painting. The fusion of modernist tendencies with a pronounced psychological portrayal was a hallmark of Dobrović’s work during this period, laying the groundwork for the more mature and expressive style he would develop in the 1930s.

Text: Luciana Fuks, Curatorial Intern, National Museum of Modern Art © National Museum of Modern Art, Zagreb
Photo: Goran Vranić © National Museum of Modern Art, Zagreb

Vladimir Becić, Soldier, 1917

Vladimir Becić
Soldier, 1917
watercolour on paper
468 x 328 mm
MG-2130

Alongside Josip Račić, Miroslav Kraljević, and Oskar Herman, Vladimir Becić was among the artists who advocated for the principles of “pure painting” at the beginning of the 20th century. Similar to Kraljević, Becić initially studied law but later chose to pursue art. He enrolled at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich in 1906 and subsequently attended the art school La Grande Chaumière in Paris from 1909. That same year, he exhibited at the Salon d’Automne in Paris and created several iconic works such as “Self-Portrait with Half-Cylinder” and “Still Life.” However, by 1910, he had returned to Osijek, where his parents lived. Because of his artistic and personal ties with Ivan Meštrović, who was considered persona non grata in the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy at the beginning of the century due to his advocacy for a South Slavic state, authorities prevented Becić from finding employment. In 1913, he moved to Bitola in Macedonia (then part of southern Serbia) and began working as a drawing teacher. At the onset of World War I, Becić voluntarily joined the Serbian army as a war artist. During the war, he also served as a war correspondent for the Parisian magazine L’Illustration, sending photographs and illustrations from the front lines to Paris. The watercolour ‘Soldier’ was published in a Paris magazine and was likely based on a photographic reference.
It is difficult to find a more poignant military portrait in Croatian art, than this one. Becić avoids extremes – fear, anger, or despair; instead, the soldier’s face remains serene. The calmness of the scene is accentuated by the olive hues of the uniform and the neutral background. Even the helmet, though illuminated, directs attention more to the soldier’s expression than to itself. Yet, the soldier’s gaze and the whites of his eyes – the starkness of these whites being the most dramatic aspect – convey a sense of contemplation and concern inherent in all profound human experiences, particularly those of wartime.

Text: Klaudio Štefančić, senior curator 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

Robert Auer, Temptation of Saint Anthony, 1917

Robert Auer
Temptation of Saint Anthony, 1917
oil on canvas
205 x 251 cm
MG-367

Robert Auer (1873–1952) studied painting at the School of Crafts in Zagreb, at the School of Arts and Crafts in Vienna and at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich, where he moved to in 1895 and exhibited at the Munich Art Nouveau exhibition in 1896. Together with his wife, painter Leopoldina Auer Schmidt, in 1897 he opened a private art school in Zagreb, which was attended by painters Tomislav Krizman and Joso Bužan. He participated in the founding of the Lada Croatian Artists’ Association and the Society of Croatian Artists. He taught at the School of Crafts in Zagreb from 1905 and at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb from 1918. In terms of style, Auer painted in the vein of Munich-based Academicism and Jugendstil, and his portraits and nudes in the spirit of idealised Realism were particularly popular among the bourgeoisie of his time.
Auer’s painting Temptation of Saint Anthony from 1917, depicts a frequently portrayed motif from the life of the 4th-century saint, Anthony the Abbot or Anthony the Great, who faced temptations of carnal desires and resisted them through prayer and fasting. Typically, St. Anthony the Abbot is depicted in his old age, leaning on a staff, wearing a hood and a monastic habit symbolizing his role as the father of monasticism. Here, however, he is shown in a whirlwind of nudes symbolizing the swirling vortex of passions against which he struggles, as a young man with a tonsure, a distinctive haircut introduced in Christianity in the 4th century and abolished in 1972. This hairstyle is commonly used to depict St. Anthony of Padua, who lived in the 13th century. The painting is executed in a realistic, academic style.

Text: Ivana Rončević Elezović, museum consultant of the National Museum of Modern Art © National Museum of Modern Art, Zagreb, 2023
Translated by: Robertina Tomić
Photo: Filip Beusan © National Museum of Modern Art, Zagreb, 2023

Ljubo Babić, Golgotha, 1917

Ljubo Babić
Golgotha, 1917
oil on wood
78 x 81.2 cm
MG-952

In several depictions of Golgotha from 1917, Ljubo Babić emphasises the universal theme of general disintegration and chaos with emptiness in the centre of the scene and pronounced light contrasts. Babić expands on the expressionist breakthrough of the composition and colourway in Kraljević’s Golgotha from 1912, and creates a suggestive vision of general doom. The painting is dominated by a sinister supernatural ambience that threatens to swallow the final scene of Christ’s Passion deep in the background.
Ljubo Babić attended secondary art school in Zagreb, and graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich. He continued his studies in Paris, and he graduated in art history in Zagreb in 1932. As a painter, set and costume designer, graphic artist, art pedagogue and critic, art historian, museologist, writer and editor, Ljubo Babić was an epochal figure in the 20th century Croatian culture and art. He participated in the foundation of the Croatian Spring Salon, the Independent Group of Artists, Group of Four, Group of Three, Group of Croatian Artists and Croatian Artists. As the first curator of the Modern Gallery (today the National Museum of Modern Art), he was the author of its first permanent display shown in 1920 in the Museum of Arts and Crafts. In 1948, he designed the first display of the National Museum of Modern Art’s collection, which represents the complex development of 19th and 20th century Croatian art, in the building in which the museum still operates today.

Text: Lada Bošnjak Velagić, senior curator of the National Museum of Modern Art © National Museum of Modern Art, Zagreb, 2022
Translated by: Robertina Tomić
Pgoto: Gopran Vranić © National Museum of Modern Art, Zagreb, 2022