Tag: Jerolim Miše

Jerolim Miše, Noon in Supetar (Noon in a Dalmatian Town), 1928

Jerolim Miše
Noon in Supetar (Noon in a Dalmatian Town), 1928
oil on canvas
66.1 x 58 cm
MG-1159

In 1928, Jerolim Miše painted Noon in Supetar (Noon in a Dalmatian Town) in the spirit of new modernity and Magical Neorealism. Miše captured a surreal vision of a sunlit and eerily vacant Dalmatian street using clear stereometry of geometrised forms and an intense colour palette influenced by French art. By masterfully depicting the Dalmatian landscape as a place of absolute Arcadian peace and harmony, Miše’s work both thematically and stylistically satisfies the expectations of the contemporary bourgeoisie and art critics alike.
Jerolim Miše began his artistic education in 1910/11 at the College of Arts and Crafts in Zagreb, then continued his studies in Rome, where he socialised with Ivan Meštrović, and later in Florence. He returned to Split in 1914. As a member of the Group of Three (along with Ljubo Babić and Vladimir Becić), he helped shape “our expression,” aiming to affirm Croatian national identity through aestheticised and idealised depictions of local scenes. In the 1930s, Miše’s painting was characterised by intense colourism and a liberated gesture. Later, he primarily painted intimate still lifes and landscapes in muted tones, and in his final decades, his style became predominantly realistic. Miše taught at secondary schools in Krapina, Slavonski Brod, and Zagreb, and later at the art academies in Belgrade and Zagreb. He penned art critiques, theoretical essays, poems, and short stories, and also engaged in graphic design. He was a member of the Yugoslav Academy of Sciences and Arts. In 1955, Miše was briefly appointed as the director of the Modern Gallery, but he actively participated in the administration of what is now the Museum from 1952 to 1966.

Text: Lada Bošnjak Velagić, museum consultant of the National Museum of Modern Art © National Museum of Modern Art, Zagreb
Translated by: Robertina Tomić
Photo by: Goran Vranić © National Museum of Modern Art, Zagreb

Jerolim Miše, A Girl, 1932

Jerolim Miše
A Girl, 1932
oil on canvas
60 x 46 cm
National Museum of Modern Art
MG-1163

Jerolim Miše’s portrait painting from the 1930s met all the expectations of the contemporary bourgeois audience and critics. Within the topical socio-political theme, Miše selects characters from the bottom of the social ladder, but he actually paints them only as clichés of misery and squalor. Poor children, women and the elderly with lowered and dimmed eyes, in Miše’s interpretations, are devoid of personality and are in fact only symbols of those ‘others’, the afflicted, helpless and uneducated.

In 1911, Jerolim Miše published such a severe piece of criticism of the work of his professor Menci Clement Crnčić that he got expelled from the College of Arts and Fine Crafts in Zagreb, so he later studied in Rome and Florence. Having been influenced by Ivan Meštrović, Miše’s early painting was close to the linear Art Nouveau style. In the late 1920s, Miše is influenced by French painting and contemporary German Expressionism and he paints pronouncedly geometrised forms in the spirit of New Modernism and Magical Expressionism. As a member of the Group of Three, he participated in the formulation of “our expression”, and after having used the intense colours and liberated gesture in the 1930s, he later paints mostly intimist still lifes and landscapes in deep colours. In the last decades of his life, he painted realistically. Miše taught at the academies of fine art in Belgrade and Zagreb. He wrote art criticism and theoretical discussions, poems and short stories, and he also worked as a graphic designer. He was a member of the Yugoslav Academy of Sciences and Arts.

Tekst: Lada Bošnjak Velagić, senior curator of the National Museum of Modern Art©National Museum of Modern Art, Zagreb
Translated by: Robertina Tomić
Foto: Goran Vranić©National Museum of Modern Art, Zagreb