113. Madonna (Study for Fresco) [1930.]

The opus of the painter Vanke, a graduate of the Brussels Académie des Beaux-Arts and a former professor of evening act, composition and fresco techniques at the temporary Higher School for Art and Crafts in Zagreb (1920. – 1936.), is filled with works that on the one hand exhibit "morphological nomadism" and a variable styling of the depicted plot, and on the other hand an undoubted artisan skill and the superior aesthetic values of his tonal palette of expressionist character. At the retrospective of Vanke's work held in 2002 at Klovićevi Dvori Gallery, which also included part of the opus realized after 1934 in New York and Bucks County (Pennsylvania), this was showcased with the brilliant oil portraits and watercolor scenes of Zagorje hills with small straw-roofed houses, painted at the end of the first decade and during the 20s of the last century. The exhibited fresco study belongs to the painter's Zagreb period and depicts a young girl who, with her eyes closed, extends her hand towards a white dove (Madonna?). It is signed with the year 1930 which suggests that the execution of the fresco was intended for the City Savings Bank in Zagreb. This is because the then director of the Savings Bank, Rudolf Erber, in 1930 ordered the painting of the walls of the restaurant "City Basement" from Vanke and his students from the fresco painting course, whose construction in the Savings Bank building was nearing completion. Vanke finished painting the restaurant's walls in 1932 and the restaurant was opened, and the City Savings Bank a year earlier, but we cannot document any possible Vanke fresco in its hall. BRP

Dimensions

width 50 cm, height 62 cm

Description

tempera and oil on board, signed and dated bottom right, in black, "M Vanka (1)930."

Research information

The work was exhibited at the "Maximilian Vanka" exhibition, Gallery Urllich, Zagreb, 1930, the work is reproduced on the cover of the catalog.

Dating

1930.

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