25. Rain on Bohinj [1925.–1930.]

In Menci Cl. Crnčić, the forerunner of Croatian outdoor painters of maritime subjects, validated also in deep print graphic sheets, continental landscapes were rarely at the center of his creative preoccupations during half a century of creative life. The reason for this should be sought in the painter's commitment to coastal landscapes and the always vivid and bubbling sea surface. At the numerous extensive retrospectives of Crnčić's oeuvre, and there have been many (UP, 1931. and 1991.; MG, 1973.; GKD, 2016.), in terms of the continental landscape, the same couple of paintings were always "exchanged", two of Plitvice Lakes and two of Lake Bohinj. It seems justified to note that what attracted Crnčić the most to their execution was the watery treasure of both lakes and the reflections of light that the calm lake water emanates. He visited the Plitvice Lakes, or more precisely, he stayed longer in Plitvice, in 1902 and 1905 when going on vacation to Novi Vinodolski, where he painted and received students from the Academy for additional teachings in his house in the summer. The displayed painting "Rain on Bohinj", so far unknown to the public, was created in 1920, as well as the previously mentioned smaller format. It shows a completely calm surface of the water under the onslaught of rain which mercilessly extinguishes the light over the lake. It was achieved with subtle tonal transitions and with an extraordinary sense of the author for balancing surfaces and verticals, the lake and the mountains that surround it. This is a skillful work of painting art from the end of the second decade of his prolific and multifold activity in Zagreb, from teaching at the painting department of the Academy to creating in the field of painting and graphics, which he regularly presented to the public at numerous exhibitions in Croatia and abroad. Moreover, this newly discovered painting of Lake Bohinj is a fresh confirmation of the knowledge that the sea and water were always a source for Crnčić, from which he nourished his marvelous landscape impressions with which he built his magnificent painting oeuvre and rightly became the founder of modern Croatian landscape painting. BRP

Dimensions

width 56 cm, height 50 cm

Description

oil on canvas, signed lower left, in black, "M. Cl. Crnčić"

Dating

1925.–1930.

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