95. Zavratnica Cove (Jablanac) [1920-ih]

Many, including the most eminent Croatian painters of the 20th century such as Menci Cl. Crnčić, a distinct marine painter and one of the founders of the Zagreb Academy of Art, or multi-disciplinary Ljubo Babić, an undisputed professor of the same Academy with half a century of teaching experience, painted Zavratnica cove due to its magical beauty. This unique landscape of protected nature was also addressed by contemporary painters, for example, Eugen Kokot and others. This artistic elite certainly includes Mihovil Krušlin who painted his painterly ode to the beautiful sub-Velebit bay in the mid '20s in three versions, the first of which is offered at the auction and two significantly smaller versions painted from lower viewpoints. All three paintings are reproduced in the monograph "Krušlin" published in 2010. What characterizes the painting "Jablanac – Zavratnica cove" is Kruslin's excellent skill in transferring the clash of sea blue with the gray and ochre shades of Velebit stone to the canvas in a manner of poetic, almost magical realism. This especially applies to brilliantly painted reflections of bare cliffs on the sea surface reaching all the way to the deep blues of the shaded side of the canyon. Mihovil Krušlin received his first painting instruction in the private school of Menci Cl. Crnčić and Bella C. Sesije. When the school turned into a Higher School for Art and Art Craft in 1907, Krušlin easily passed the entrance exam and became a student of painting in Crnčić's class. With his colleague Ljubo Babić, he helped Professor Crnčić make the large triptych "View from Plas" in 1909. In 1910, he organized his first independent exhibition, sold most of his paintings, and it can be said that he stepped onto the Zagreb art stage very successfully as a student. After graduating in 1911, he bravely (without the support of the society) ventured to Paris. He stayed there for eight months, learning from the source of modern art and befriending Miroslav Kraljević. Upon his return home, he took up portrait painting and increasingly watercolored the nature of the Sava and Sutla valleys, from ascetic winter to lush spring. During the summer vacations, he stayed with Crnčić in Novi Vinodolski several times, from where he sailed along the coast to Jablanac or the Kvarner islands. In 1926, he traveled to a distant and different nature. Through Italy, he reached North Africa, whose landscapes he depicted with a significantly changed palette. On the eve of the war, he returned to his native Ključ, where he continued to paint the calming surroundings until the end of his creative life which he regularly exhibited and successfully sold in the Ullrich Salon. BRP

References

Biserka Rauter Plančić & Nikola Albaneže & Maja Hunjak, Mihovil Krušlin (monograph), Modern Gallery and Mona Lisa Gallery, Zagreb, 2010., pp. 10-13, 130-131, 159

Dimensions

width 76 cm, height 60 cm

Description

oil on canvas, signed lower right, in red, "M Krušlin"

Dating

1920-ih

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