Vlaho Bukovac
Encyclopedia
Vlaho Bukovac was a Croatian
painter
.
.jpg)
south of Dubrovnik
in Dalmatia
. As a son born to a family of mixed Croatian and Italian ancestry, his father was an Italian Croat from Genoa
, while his mother was of explicitly Croatian descent.
where he was sent by the patron
(Knez) Medo Pucić
. His small studies and sketches
delighted his professor
, the well-known Alexandre Cabanel
, and Bukovac became a student
at the prestigious École des Beaux-Arts
. He painted in the spirit of embellished, "sweetened" realism and achieved great success at the Salons
, at that time the place of the greatest review of works related to the arts. By following the artistic fashion of the public, he imbued it predominantly with his themes. Temporary destinations during his sojourn in France
were England
and the warm coast of Dalmatia
where he was born. Otherwise, he was open to the world
, including voyages to the Black Sea
, as well as South
(Chile
and Peru
) and North America
.
, developed in the spirit of the artists who kept gathering in modernism-oriented marginal galleries in Paris in the 1870s. He knew the spirit of academism and, on the other hand, he felt the spirit of Impressionistic freedom. Having accepted modern principles, Bukovac painted casual pictures, using liberated strokes of the brush, in the pointillist technique.
, Croatia
from 1893 to 1897, bringing with him the spirit of French art. These new directives are most evident in his landscapes
. He then began using a palette of lively and lighter colors using liberated strokes, soft rendering and the introduction of light on the painting canvas
. With the time spent in Zagreb
, he became the leader of all important cultural and artistic events. He founded the Zagreb multicoloured school, helped initiate the construction of the Art Pavilion
, and organized the first artistic exhibition in the Academy Palace in 1893. Due to conflict with Izidor Kršnjavi and his great sensitivity, he withdrew to his native Cavtat
where he stayed from 1898 to 1902. Upon his return to Prague he was appointed associate professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague
in 1903.
to his new students, one of which was noted Croatian painter Mirko Rački
. It was in this time he introduced pointillism
to the Prague Academy, and earned his historical reputation as an excellent pedagogue. His most famous painting is the curtain in the Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb, "Croatian national revival".
Vlaho Bukovac died in Prague
.
Croats
Croats are a South Slavic ethnic group mostly living in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and nearby countries. There are around 4 million Croats living inside Croatia and up to 4.5 million throughout the rest of the world. Responding to political, social and economic pressure, many Croats have...
painter
Painting
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...
.
Life
Early life
Bukovac was born Biagio Faggioni in the town of CavtatCavtat
Cavtat ) is a town in the Dubrovnik-Neretva County of Croatia. It is on the Adriatic seacoast 15 km south of Dubrovnik and is the centre of the Konavle municipality.-History:...
south of 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...
in 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....
. As a son born to a family of mixed Croatian and Italian ancestry, his father was an Italian Croat from Genoa
Genoa
Genoa |Ligurian]] Zena ; Latin and, archaically, English Genua) is a city and an important seaport in northern Italy, the capital of the Province of Genoa and of the region of Liguria....
, while his mother was of explicitly Croatian descent.
Studies
Bukovac received his artistic education in ParisParis
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
where he was sent by the patron
Patrón
Patrón is a luxury brand of tequila produced in Mexico and sold in hand-blown, individually numbered bottles.Made entirely from Blue Agave "piñas" , Patrón comes in five varieties: Silver, Añejo, Reposado, Gran Patrón Platinum and Gran Patrón Burdeos. Patrón also sells a tequila-coffee blend known...
(Knez) Medo Pucić
Medo Pucic
Medo Pucić, also known as Orsat Pucić, was a writer and politician from Dubrovnik, at the time in the Austro-Hungarian Kingdom of Dalmatia, who was the first Catholic native of Dubrovnik to declare himself a Serb, believing that the religion was irrelevant for ethnic affiliation, contrary to the...
. His small studies and sketches
Sketch (drawing)
A sketch is a rapidly executed freehand drawing that is not usually intended as a finished work...
delighted his professor
Professor
A professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...
, the well-known Alexandre Cabanel
Alexandre Cabanel
Alexandre Cabanel was a French painter.- Biography :Cabanel was born in Montpellier, Hérault. He painted historical, classical and religious subjects in the academic style. He was also well known as a portrait painter...
, and Bukovac became a student
Student
A student is a learner, or someone who attends an educational institution. In some nations, the English term is reserved for those who attend university, while a schoolchild under the age of eighteen is called a pupil in English...
at the prestigious École des Beaux-Arts
École des Beaux-Arts
École des Beaux-Arts refers to a number of influential art schools in France. The most famous is the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts, now located on the left bank in Paris, across the Seine from the Louvre, in the 6th arrondissement. The school has a history spanning more than 350 years,...
. He painted in the spirit of embellished, "sweetened" realism and achieved great success at the Salons
Salon (gathering)
A salon is a gathering of people under the roof of an inspiring host, held partly to amuse one another and partly to refine taste and increase their knowledge of the participants through conversation. These gatherings often consciously followed Horace's definition of the aims of poetry, "either to...
, at that time the place of the greatest review of works related to the arts. By following the artistic fashion of the public, he imbued it predominantly with his themes. Temporary destinations during his sojourn in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
were England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
and the warm coast 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....
where he was born. Otherwise, he was open to the world
World
World is a common name for the whole of human civilization, specifically human experience, history, or the human condition in general, worldwide, i.e. anywhere on Earth....
, including voyages to the Black Sea
Black Sea
The Black Sea is bounded by Europe, Anatolia and the Caucasus and is ultimately connected to the Atlantic Ocean via the Mediterranean and the Aegean seas and various straits. The Bosphorus strait connects it to the Sea of Marmara, and the strait of the Dardanelles connects that sea to the Aegean...
, as well as South
South America
South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...
(Chile
Chile
Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
and Peru
Peru
Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....
) and North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
.
Artistic power
Besides being an artist who followed the established canons dictated by the Salon and the general public, there was another Bukovac who followed his own inner impulses of artistic creation. Liberated artistic expression, which was called ImpressionismImpressionism
Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement that originated with a group of Paris-based artists whose independent exhibitions brought them to prominence during the 1870s and 1880s...
, developed in the spirit of the artists who kept gathering in modernism-oriented marginal galleries in Paris in the 1870s. He knew the spirit of academism and, on the other hand, he felt the spirit of Impressionistic freedom. Having accepted modern principles, Bukovac painted casual pictures, using liberated strokes of the brush, in the pointillist technique.
Zagreb
Bukovac became a significant representative of fine arts in ZagrebZagreb
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...
, Croatia
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 ...
from 1893 to 1897, bringing with him the spirit of French art. These new directives are most evident in his landscapes
Landscape art
Landscape art is a term that covers the depiction of natural scenery such as mountains, valleys, trees, rivers, and forests, and especially art where the main subject is a wide view, with its elements arranged into a coherent composition. In other works landscape backgrounds for figures can still...
. He then began using a palette of lively and lighter colors using liberated strokes, soft rendering and the introduction of light on the painting canvas
Canvas
Canvas is an extremely heavy-duty plain-woven fabric used for making sails, tents, marquees, backpacks, and other items for which sturdiness is required. It is also popularly used by artists as a painting surface, typically stretched across a wooden frame...
. With the time spent in 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...
, he became the leader of all important cultural and artistic events. He founded the Zagreb multicoloured school, helped initiate the construction of the Art Pavilion
Art Pavilion
The Art Pavilion in Zagreb is an art gallery in Zagreb, Croatia. The Pavilion is located in the Lower Town area of the city, south of Nikola Šubić Zrinski Square and just north of the King Tomislav Square with the Main Train Station...
, and organized the first artistic exhibition in the Academy Palace in 1893. Due to conflict with Izidor Kršnjavi and his great sensitivity, he withdrew to his native Cavtat
Cavtat
Cavtat ) is a town in the Dubrovnik-Neretva County of Croatia. It is on the Adriatic seacoast 15 km south of Dubrovnik and is the centre of the Konavle municipality.-History:...
where he stayed from 1898 to 1902. Upon his return to Prague he was appointed associate professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague
Academy of Fine Arts in Prague
The Academy of Fine Arts, Prague was founded in 1799 and is the Czech Republic's oldest art college. The school offers twelve Master's degree programs and one Doctoral program.-History:...
in 1903.
Pedagogy
His departure from Prague resulted in a complete change of personality for Bukovac. He felt satisfaction and enthusiasm in Zagreb that he had not felt in a while, and began to dedicate all of his energyEnergy
In physics, energy is an indirectly observed quantity. It is often understood as the ability a physical system has to do work on other physical systems...
to his new students, one of which was noted Croatian painter Mirko Rački
Mirko Racki
Mirko Rački was a Croatian painter.Rački was born in Novi Marof, and graduated from the Teacher's Academy in Zagreb. He then went to the private art school of H. Strehblow in Vienna, then studied at the Academy in Prague under Vlaho Bukovac and in Vienna under W. Unger...
. It was in this time he introduced pointillism
Pointillism
Pointillism is a technique of painting in which small, distinct dots of pure color are applied in patterns to form an image. Georges Seurat developed the technique in 1886, branching from Impressionism. The term Pointillism was first coined by art critics in the late 1880s to ridicule the works...
to the Prague Academy, and earned his historical reputation as an excellent pedagogue. His most famous painting is the curtain in the Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb, "Croatian national revival".
Vlaho Bukovac died in Prague
Prague
Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...
.
Sources
- Bukovac, Vlaho. Moj Život. Zagreb: Književni Jug, 1918.
- Kružić-Uchytil, Vera. Vlaho Bukovac: Život i Djelo. Zagreb: Matica Hrvatska, 1968. Expanded second edition: Zagreb : Nakladni Zavod Globus, 2005.
- Kružić-Uchytil, Vera. "Prvi nastupi hrvatskih umjetnika na međunarodnoj umjetničkoj sceni od 1896 do 1903 godine." Peristil 31 (1998): 193-198.
- Zidić, IgorIgor ZidićIgor 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....
. Vlaho Bukovac. Zagreb: Moderna Galerija, 2000. - Kapičić, Anđe. Bukovac i Crna Gora. Cetinje: Matica Crnogorska, 2002.
- Rossner, Rachel. ‘"The secessionists are the Croats. They’ve been given their own pavilion…" Vlaho Bukovac’s Battle for Croatian Autonomy at the 1896 Millennial Exhibition in Budapest,' Nineteenth-Century Art Worldwide vol. 6, no.1 (2007): http://19thc-artworldwide.org/spring_07/articles/ross.shtml