Ignjat Job
Encyclopedia
Ignjat Job was a Croatia
n painter from Dubrovnik
.
He was an important representative of colour expressionism in the art scene of Yugoslavia
during the 1930s. His landscapes of Dalmatia
are reminiscent of the style of Van Gogh. He is best known for his series of paintings inspired by life on the island of Brač
. Job himself said that “the beneficial influence of the Brač landscape can be felt, the hot sun, blue sea, and green branches of olive trees swayed by the breath of the maestral
”. His paintings depicted the Mediterranean landscape, motifs of the town of Supetar
, fishing themes, and more rarely portraits and nudes.
, on 28 March 1895. His father died when young Ignjat was only 5 years old. He attended school in Dubrovnik until 1910. An important influence on his early intellectual and artistic development was his older brother Cvijeto (1892–1915), whose art studies in Belgrade
and Munich
came to an end when he went off to fight in the First World War. As an active supporter for independence from Austria-Hungary
, the young Ignjat Job was arrested in 1912 along with other young nationalists and sentenced to one month in prison. In 1913, while Job was only 18, his first daughter, Marija was born. Arrested again in 1914, he spent time in Šibenik
prison, then removed to a mental hospital, thanks to good connections, until September 1916. Traumatic experiences from his two-year stay in the mental hospital oppressed Job in the years that followed, and left a mark on his work, most notably on Madmen in the Yard, a drawing thought to have been made between 1916 and 1919.
In 1917 Job moved to Zagreb
with his mother and younger brother Nikola, where he enrolled in the Arts and Crafts College (Viša škola za umjetnost i umjetni obrt). Job fell in love, and married Viktorija Oršić. After spending the summer in Dubrovnik and on Lopud
, the couple moved back to Zagreb for the autumn. However, the relationship was not to last, and they divorced in 1920. In that same year, Job's mother died, and due to irregular attendance, he lost his place at college. The family fortune had been used up in enforced war loans, the purchase of the flat in Zagreb, and the education of the children. Job now found himself dependent on the goodwill of friends, and increasingly prone to bouts of depression and ill-health.
In December of 1920, Job went to Italy, visiting Rome
, Naples
and Capri
. Travelling back through Dubrovnik and Zagreb, he went on to Belgrade
, spending time there with local modernist artists - most notably Petar Dobrović
. There also, in 1923, Job met and married his second wife, Živka Cvetković, and their daughter Cvijeta was born in the summer of 1924.
In the spring of 1925 Job was diagnosed with tuberculosis
, and spent the summer being treated at Ovčar-Kablar Gorge
, after which the family moved to the village of Kulina, near Kruševac
. There he painted his memories of the coast, mostly on small panels.
In October 1925, Job's son Rastko was born, but fell ill and died in March the following year. The death of his infant son left a deep impression on Job's mental and emotional state.
In the summer of 1927 the family moved to Vodice
, near Šibenik, and from 1928 they lived in Supetar
on the island of Brač
. There, Job embarked on the most creative time of his artistic career, and his style began to resemble that of Van Gogh. Job's focus was on recording the impulse of his personal feelings, and strong expressiveness became a feature of his work. The following year, 1929, he held his first solo exhibition in Split, which was well received by public and critics alike. By his next solo exhibition at the Salon Galić in Split, Job's style had developed more toward expressionism.
Between 1934 and 1935, Job lived in Belgrade and Zagreb, then returned to Supetar. He died of tuberculosis in a Zagreb clinic on 28 April 1936.
techniques and strong, expressive use of colour. Job saw landscape as a symbol, and used colour as an expression of his emotions, his personal experience of life and his reaction to the environment and its native people. His art was grounded in the earthy island lifestyle, and he pursued his own personal vision. As the critic Igor Zidić
says "All of the content in Job's work, from 1928 to his death, are locally and regionally marked, always concrete, borrowed from the real world and the little towns of Dalmatia in which he scrimped and lived, full of ambiental tone and colour, melodies, events and figures... He was a careful observer, with a lot of sense for humour, for the comic and tragicomic, for the mad, the ridiculous, the fantastic and the drunk."
The majority of Job's works are on display at the Branislav Dešković Gallery in Bol.
Croatia
Serbia
Croatia
Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...
n painter from Dubrovnik
Dubrovnik
Dubrovnik is a Croatian city on the Adriatic Sea coast, positioned at the terminal end of the Isthmus of Dubrovnik. It is one of the most prominent tourist destinations on the Adriatic, a seaport and the centre of Dubrovnik-Neretva county. Its total population is 42,641...
.
He was an important representative of colour expressionism in the art scene of Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....
during the 1930s. His landscapes of Dalmatia
Dalmatia
Dalmatia is a historical region on the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea. It stretches from the island of Rab in the northwest to the Bay of Kotor in the southeast. The hinterland, the Dalmatian Zagora, ranges from fifty kilometers in width in the north to just a few kilometers in the south....
are reminiscent of the style of Van Gogh. He is best known for his series of paintings inspired by life on the island of Brač
Brac
Brač is an island in the Adriatic Sea within Croatia, with an area of 396 km², making it the largest island in Dalmatia, and the third largest in the Adriatic. Its tallest peak, Vidova Gora, or Mount St. Vid, stands at 778 m, making it the highest island point in the Adriatic...
. Job himself said that “the beneficial influence of the Brač landscape can be felt, the hot sun, blue sea, and green branches of olive trees swayed by the breath of the maestral
Mistral (wind)
The mistral is a strong, cold and usually dry regional wind in France, coming from the north or northwest, which accelerates when it passes through the valleys of the Rhone and the Durance Rivers to the coast of the Mediterranean around the Camargue region. It affects the northeast of the plain...
”. His paintings depicted the Mediterranean landscape, motifs of the town of Supetar
Supetar
Supetar is a town on the northern side of the Dalmatian island of Brač,in the Splitsko-Dalmatiska County, in Croatia. It became the island's official centre in 1827...
, fishing themes, and more rarely portraits and nudes.
Biography
Ignjat Job was born in DubrovnikDubrovnik
Dubrovnik is a Croatian city on the Adriatic Sea coast, positioned at the terminal end of the Isthmus of Dubrovnik. It is one of the most prominent tourist destinations on the Adriatic, a seaport and the centre of Dubrovnik-Neretva county. Its total population is 42,641...
, on 28 March 1895. His father died when young Ignjat was only 5 years old. He attended school in Dubrovnik until 1910. An important influence on his early intellectual and artistic development was his older brother Cvijeto (1892–1915), whose art studies in Belgrade
Belgrade
Belgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where the Pannonian Plain meets the Balkans. According to official results of Census 2011, the city has a population of 1,639,121. It is one of the 15 largest cities in Europe...
and Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
came to an end when he went off to fight in the First World War. As an active supporter for independence from Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary , more formally known as the Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council and the Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen, was a constitutional monarchic union between the crowns of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary in...
, the young Ignjat Job was arrested in 1912 along with other young nationalists and sentenced to one month in prison. In 1913, while Job was only 18, his first daughter, Marija was born. Arrested again in 1914, he spent time in Šibenik
Šibenik
Šibenik is a historic town in Croatia, with population of 51,553 . It is located in central Dalmatia where the river Krka flows into the Adriatic Sea...
prison, then removed to a mental hospital, thanks to good connections, until September 1916. Traumatic experiences from his two-year stay in the mental hospital oppressed Job in the years that followed, and left a mark on his work, most notably on Madmen in the Yard, a drawing thought to have been made between 1916 and 1919.
In 1917 Job moved to Zagreb
Zagreb
Zagreb is the capital and the largest city of the Republic of Croatia. It is in the northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the Medvednica mountain. Zagreb lies at an elevation of approximately above sea level. According to the last official census, Zagreb's city...
with his mother and younger brother Nikola, where he enrolled in the Arts and Crafts College (Viša škola za umjetnost i umjetni obrt). Job fell in love, and married Viktorija Oršić. After spending the summer in Dubrovnik and on Lopud
Lopud
Lopud is a small island off the coast of Dalmatia, southern Croatia. Lopud is one of the Elaphiti Islands, and can be reached by boat from Dubrovnik, Orasac and Zaton. The island is famous for its sandy beaches, in particular the bay of Šunj....
, the couple moved back to Zagreb for the autumn. However, the relationship was not to last, and they divorced in 1920. In that same year, Job's mother died, and due to irregular attendance, he lost his place at college. The family fortune had been used up in enforced war loans, the purchase of the flat in Zagreb, and the education of the children. Job now found himself dependent on the goodwill of friends, and increasingly prone to bouts of depression and ill-health.
In December of 1920, Job went to Italy, visiting Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
, Naples
Naples
Naples is a city in Southern Italy, situated on the country's west coast by the Gulf of Naples. Lying between two notable volcanic regions, Mount Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields, it is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples...
and Capri
Capri
Capri is an Italian island in the Tyrrhenian Sea off the Sorrentine Peninsula, on the south side of the Gulf of Naples, in the Campania region of Southern Italy...
. Travelling back through Dubrovnik and Zagreb, he went on to Belgrade
Belgrade
Belgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where the Pannonian Plain meets the Balkans. According to official results of Census 2011, the city has a population of 1,639,121. It is one of the 15 largest cities in Europe...
, spending time there with local modernist artists - most notably Petar Dobrović
Petar Dobrovic
Petar Dobrović was a famous Serbian painter and politician born in Hungary.A proponent of Serbian colorism, he was known for portraits and landscapes...
. There also, in 1923, Job met and married his second wife, Živka Cvetković, and their daughter Cvijeta was born in the summer of 1924.
In the spring of 1925 Job was diagnosed with tuberculosis
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...
, and spent the summer being treated at Ovčar-Kablar Gorge
Ovcar-Kablar Gorge
Ovčar-Kablar Gorge , is a gorge in the western Serbia, part of the composite valley of the West Morava river...
, after which the family moved to the village of Kulina, near Kruševac
Kruševac
Kruševac is a city and municipality, and the administrative center of the Rasina District, in central Serbia. According to the 2011 census, the municipality has a population of 127,429, while the town has 57,627....
. There he painted his memories of the coast, mostly on small panels.
In October 1925, Job's son Rastko was born, but fell ill and died in March the following year. The death of his infant son left a deep impression on Job's mental and emotional state.
In the summer of 1927 the family moved to Vodice
Vodice
Vodice may refer to:* Vodice, Croatia* Vodice, Slovenia* Vodice, Serbia* Vodice, a village in Albania...
, near Šibenik, and from 1928 they lived in Supetar
Supetar
Supetar is a town on the northern side of the Dalmatian island of Brač,in the Splitsko-Dalmatiska County, in Croatia. It became the island's official centre in 1827...
on the island of Brač
Brac
Brač is an island in the Adriatic Sea within Croatia, with an area of 396 km², making it the largest island in Dalmatia, and the third largest in the Adriatic. Its tallest peak, Vidova Gora, or Mount St. Vid, stands at 778 m, making it the highest island point in the Adriatic...
. There, Job embarked on the most creative time of his artistic career, and his style began to resemble that of Van Gogh. Job's focus was on recording the impulse of his personal feelings, and strong expressiveness became a feature of his work. The following year, 1929, he held his first solo exhibition in Split, which was well received by public and critics alike. By his next solo exhibition at the Salon Galić in Split, Job's style had developed more toward expressionism.
Between 1934 and 1935, Job lived in Belgrade and Zagreb, then returned to Supetar. He died of tuberculosis in a Zagreb clinic on 28 April 1936.
Legacy
Ignjat Job's best, most creative and expressive work was produced in a very short space of time. In the early 1920s, his painting still shows the influence of the Spring Salon, with rounded forms in more muted colours. However, inspired by the scenes of his native Dalmatia, and driven by his own personal demons, Job went on to become one of the most expressive painters in the Croatian modern art scene of the 1920s and 30s. In his later works he demonstrated fauvismFauvism
Fauvism is the style of les Fauves , a short-lived and loose group of early twentieth-century Modern artists whose works emphasized painterly qualities and strong colour over the representational or realistic values retained by Impressionism...
techniques and strong, expressive use of colour. Job saw landscape as a symbol, and used colour as an expression of his emotions, his personal experience of life and his reaction to the environment and its native people. His art was grounded in the earthy island lifestyle, and he pursued his own personal vision. As the critic Igor Zidić
Igor Zidić
Igor Zidić is a Croatian art historian, art critic, poet and essayist. He is considered one of the foremost authorities on visual arts in Croatia and a top expert on Croatian modern art....
says "All of the content in Job's work, from 1928 to his death, are locally and regionally marked, always concrete, borrowed from the real world and the little towns of Dalmatia in which he scrimped and lived, full of ambiental tone and colour, melodies, events and figures... He was a careful observer, with a lot of sense for humour, for the comic and tragicomic, for the mad, the ridiculous, the fantastic and the drunk."
The majority of Job's works are on display at the Branislav Dešković Gallery in Bol.
Works
Images of Ignjat Job's paintings can be seen online at the Adris Group website, Arte Galerija, and Galerija Remek-Djela:- Santa Maria, 1921
- Coastal Village (Primorsko selo), 1925
- Mountain Landscape (Planinski pejzaž), 1927
- Fish Market (Riblja Piaca), 1927
- Prayer (Molitva), 1927-8
- Self-portrait with Hat (Autoportret sa šeširom), 1928-9
- My House in Supetar (Moj dom u Supetru), 1929
- Madmen (Ludaci), 1929
- Mr. Bepo (Šjor Bepo), 1929
- Fields (Polje), 1930
- Village (Selo), 1930
- Landscape (Pejzaž), 1930
- After Harvest (Poslije berbe), 1930
- Landscape with the Artist's House (Pejzaž sa umetnikovim domom), 1930
- Minčeta with Palm (Minčeta s palmom), 1931
- Self-portrait (Autoportret), 1931
- Landscape Through Pines and Olives (Pejzaž kroz bore i maslina), 1931
- Innocent (Bezazleni), 1931
- Female Nude (Ženski akt), 1931
- Portrait of Liza Križanić (Portret Lize Križanić), 1931
- Landscape with House (Pejzaž s kućom), 1932
- Landscape with Church (Pejzaž s crkvom), 1932
- Grouper (Škarpina), 1932
- House Beneath the Hill (Kuća pod bregom), 1932
- Fighting in the Bar (Tučnjava u gostionici), 1932
- On the Terrace (Na terasi), 1932
- Courtyard (Dvorište), 1932
- Return from the Harvest (Povratak s berbe), 1932-3
- Gripe, 1933-4
- Vela Glavica I, 1933
- Vela Glavica II, 1933
- Sunday (Nedelja), 1933
- Primorski Landscape (Pines) (Primorski pejzaž (Borovi)), 1933
- Courtyard with Flowers (Dvorište sa cvećem), 1934
- Reclining Nude (Ležeći akt), 1934
- Fishermen Before the Storm (Ribari pred oluju), 1934
- Landscape (Pejzaž), 1935
- Sea and Trees (More i borovi), 1935
- Inn (Krčma), 1935
- Wine Pressing (Turnanje vina), 1935
- Olives I (Masline I), 1935
- Stone Table (Kameni stol), 1935
Exhibitions
During his lifetime, Ignjat Job held exhibitions of his work in Split, Zagreb and Belgrade.Solo Exhibitions
Recent exhibitions of his work include:- 2007 Adris Gallery
- 1997 Ignjat Job, Art Pavilion in Zagreb
Group Exhibitions
- 2009 100 Godina Srpske Umetnosti, National Museum, Belgrade
- 2008 From the holdings of the museum - Museum of Modern Art Dubrovnik, Dubrovnik
- 2007 Iz fundusa galerije - Museum of Modern Art Dubrovnik, Dubrovnik
Public Collections
His work can be found in the following public collections:Croatia
- Modern Gallery, ZagrebModern Gallery, ZagrebModern Gallery is a museum in Zagreb, Croatia that holds the most important and comprehensive collection of paintings, sculptures and drawings by 19th and 20th century Croatian artists. The collection numbers around 10,000 works of art, housed since 1934 in the historic Vranyczany Palace in the...
, Croatia - Gallery of Fine Arts, SplitGallery of Fine Arts, SplitThe Gallery of Fine Arts , is an art museum in Split, Croatia containing works from 14th century up to the present day providing an overview of the artistic developments in the local art scene...
- Gallery of Fine Arts, Zadar
- Galerija umjetnina Branislav Dešković, BolBol, CroatiaBol is a town on the south of the island of Brač in theSplit-Dalmatia County of Croatia, population 1,661 .Bol is renowned for its most popular beach, the Zlatni rat . It is a promontory composed mostly of pebble rock that visibly shifts with the tidal movement, a unique sight...
, island of BračBracBrač is an island in the Adriatic Sea within Croatia, with an area of 396 km², making it the largest island in Dalmatia, and the third largest in the Adriatic. Its tallest peak, Vidova Gora, or Mount St. Vid, stands at 778 m, making it the highest island point in the Adriatic...
, Croatia - Museum of Modern Art Dubrovnik, Dubrovnik
Serbia
- Spomen-Zbirka Pavla Beljanskog, Novi Sad
- Museum of Contemporary ArtMuseum of Contemporary Art (Belgrade)Museum of Contemporary Art in Belgrade is the art institution which collects and displays work produced since in 1900 in Serbia and former Yugoslavia. The museum also organizes international exhibitions of modern and contemporary art. It was founded in 1958 as the Museum of Modern Art...
(Muzej Savremene Umetnosti), Belgrade