57. Still Life with Game [1876.-1879.]
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57. Still Life with Game [1876.-1879.]
1852, Otočac - 1902, Zagreb
Not sold
Post-auction price
EUR 6.000
oil on canvas, 36.5 x 54 cm, signed at the top right, in red, "Nikola Mašić"
During his student years, it is worth mentioning that Nikola Mašić – unlike his twin brother Aleksandar, also a painter – first briefly attended the Vienna Art Academy and enrolled in the painting study at the Art Academy in Munich in the fall of 1872. Due to frequent illnesses (tuberculosis), he was forced to interrupt his studies and return to Austria, to Graz, where his guardian's family lived, in the following year. In Graz, he also received the news of his older brother Ilija's passing, so Nikola went to his birthplace Otočac where Ilija lived with his guardian. He stayed in Otočac until 1875, painting studies from Krajina. He returned to the Munich Academy in 1876, and ended his painting studies cum laude in 1879. Immediately afterwards he received a studio from the Academy where he created, concurrently and successfully exhibited at international art exhibitions, with artworks that sold well not only in Germany and Austria, but also in England and America. Besides the signature and biographical constraints, the dating of the painting is confirmed by the way it is painted, as we can divide Mašić's entire oeuvre in terms of time and methodology into two parts. The first is the Munich period, when he studied, sketched, and painted in the studio, and the second is the Posavina period, when he painted in full daylight, creating the first plein air paintings of the Croatian art modern, such as "Duck Farmer on the Sava" from 1880.
The painting "Still life (with a duck and jug)", executed in the tradition of Munich tonal painting from the late 19th century, due to its undeniable craftsmanship excellence can be considered a fortunate discovery, actually a significant contribution to the values of both Mašić's work and Croatian painting from the late 19th century. (B.R.P.)
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