References

Petra Vugrinec, Robert Auer - painter of the Zagreb Secession. Retrospective (exhibition catalogue), Klovićevi dvori Gallery, September-December 2010, p. 17 and 29; ibid., Symbolism in Croatian Painting (doctoral dissertation, p. 332, 360 and passim), 2020: https://repozitorij.ffzg.unizg.hr/

oil on canvas, 60 x 40 cm, signed with initials and dated lower right, in blue, "R.A 1910."

As an exceptional draftsman, Robert Auer created the prototype of a beauty of the Art Nouveau era in Croatia at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century with his numerous portraits and figural compositions of unknown girls, actually models painted in dreamy, sensual poses. During his long creative life, Auer earned many followers with such paintings for his art, and not insignificantly, many orders to make portraits of beautiful women from Zagreb. This painting is not of a model, but a portrait of an attractive friend of his wife Leopoldine Auer - Schmidt. We still don't know the friend's name, but her figure with voluminous hair and penetrating, far from dreamy gaze is recognizable: on a postcard with the reproduction of his painting "In thoughts" from 1902, as well as on the oil painting "Friends", believed by Petra Vugrinec as the painter's masterpiece. Curator Vugrinec is a persistent researcher of the Croatian modern art scene, who has greatly indebted us with her search for early symbolic works of its protagonists, and in particular with the discovery of the aforementioned painting in a private collection in Zagreb. In the portrait painting titled "Beauty", painted with less Art Nouveau idealization but more real characterization of the girl's figure, both Klimt's aestheticism and the painter's desire to transfer a touch of his Vienna-Munich experiences and fashion trends to the nascent modern citizenry are clearly evident. Robert Auer studied at the School of Applied Arts and the Art Academy in Vienna from 1891 to 1894, and then at the Munich Academy until 1896, where he joined the Munich Secession at the exhibition "Secession, Munich" (1895). Upon returning to Zagreb with his wife, also a painter, he opened a private art school in 1897 which was attended by many future professional Croatian painters. He also traveled to France and Italy, and for longer periods to the USA (1902-1994). He taught ornamental and figural composition and nude drawing at the Zagreb Art Academy until 1919. BRP

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