66. Ancient Beauty [1915.]

The painting is cataloged in the monograph "Vlaho Bukovac / Life and Work" by author Vera Kružić Uchytil in the chapter "Prague Period 1903 - 1922," under the title "Ancient Beauty" and catalog number K-926. In this Bukovac catalog d'oeuvres from 2005, Kružić Uchytil included the picture based on an autopsy conducted in Zagreb with the then-owner, and the name of the picture was taken from the accompanying catalog of Bukovac's exhibition held in Prague in the Salon of Jan Rubeš, where it was exhibited during January 1915. In the description of the painting on page 414 of the monograph, the author notes: ANCIENT BEAUTY signed. l.d .: Vlaho Bukovac, Prague, 1915. On the left, on the pedestal, an ancient figure. A girl is sitting in front of her en face, with her head turned towards the statuette which she observes with uplifted gaze. Dark dress, transparent veil around her head. Interwoven fingers of hands laid in her lap. Face illuminated by lateral beam of light from the left. In the background, a colourful curtain. Texture of stains of various sizes. Ing. Srećko Petrinjak, Zagreb In arranging the ambience for painting portraits or any other classic interior-themed paintings, Bukovac was always inventive, innovative and different, even though he always used the same objects from his studio to convey an environment suitable for the model. For example, with picturesque curtains, tapestries, oriental rugs, sofas or chairs, vases or statues, but each of his portraits radiates a new freshness, different character impersonation and color and light effects, actually a newly imagined environment for the central figure he paints in a realistic style adapted to divisional techniques. The painting Girl and Sculpture is a brilliant example of Bukovac's extraordinary painting skills, invention and vitality with which he paints his Prague portraits. After a one year stay and work in Vienna, Vlaho Bukovac came to Prague at the end of 1903, at the invitation of the Prague Art Academy, where he took over the position of painting professor. From his autobiography, we learn that at the beginning he was not exactly the happiest with his new residence, because he did not speak the Czech language fluently, and in the then Prague cultural and artistic circles, there were few with whom he could exchange experiences and converse in Croatian or French, Italian, and English which he spoke proficiently. There were refuges for the painter's language alienation and fear that his world would shrink and his vital space would decrease in Prague, as Igor Zidić writes in the catalogue of Prague and Zagreb exhibitions of the painter's works from 2000. First and foremost, we have the family nest - his wife Jelica, three daughters and a son, summers in Cavtat, working stays in England, trips with exhibition appearances in Vienna and Paris, and finally in Zagreb and Split, where he participated in the exhibitions of the Medulić society. About Bukovac's painting from the so-called "late Prague period," that is, about the works created after the Great War, it should be emphasized that he occasionally returned to symbolistic themes and that family scenes as well as a series of portraits of his wife Jelica, son Aga and daughters Jelica, Ivanka and Marija achieved from 1917. until his death in 1922 are marked by a deep plunge into his own inner world and, in fact, a parable of his painting age that lasted for almost half a century.

References

Vera Kružić Uchytil, Vlaho Bukjovac / Life and work / 1855. – 1922., Globus, Zagreb, 2005. Vlaho Bukovac, My Life, second Croatian edition, Matica hrvatska and the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb, Zagreb, 1992. Igor Zidić, Vlaho Bukjovac / Retrospective, Modern Gallery, Zagreb, 2000., p. XIII.

Dimensions

width 61 cm, height 76 cm

Description

oil on canvas, signed, located and dated lower left, in red, "Vlaho Bukovac / Prague 1915"

Research information

The work is mentioned and identified in the monograph Vera Kružić-Uchytil, "Vlaho Bukovac - Life and Work", Matica Hrvatska, Zagreb, 1968 on page 270, under the title "Ancient Beauty" and catalog number 823. The work is cataloged in the monograph "Vlaho Bukovac. Life and Work", Zagreb, 2005 by Vera Kružić Uchytil in the chapter "Prague period 1903. – 1922, under the title "Ancient Beauty" and catalog number K-926. The work is reproduced on an old trilingual (Czech, German and French) postcard under the title "Beauty". The postcard is reproduced in "Bukovac on Postcards", Niko Kapetanić, Cavtat, 2022, on page 100. The work was exhibited at the first solo exhibition of Vlaho Bukovac in Prague, 1915, on the occasion of the celebration of the 60th anniversary of the Jan Rubeš Salon.

Dating

1915.

PROVENANCE

Historical Czech-Croatian family collection.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

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