87. Split Landscape (Old Market) [1949.]

On the back of the painting, we find a pasted cutout of a poster copy of Vidović's exhibition held in the Galić Art Salon in Split in 1936, at which the painter exhibited works from the "Trogir" cycle and a smaller number of "Old-Split" motifs painted in a dark gamut of oil and watercolor paints. From archival sources, we learn that Ivan Galić, the first private Split gallery owner, prepared an extensive exhibition for his first exhibitor and respected painter Vidović in 1939, which included oils, temperas and pastels, with which the painter enters a period of creative euphoria... producing dozens of top works that come out annually from his studio. The same painter's monograph further emphasizes that in the following two years Vidović painted his most beautiful interiors of the cathedrals of Split and Trogir, which he exhibited in 1941 alongside a series of vedutas titled "From Old Split" again in the Galić Salon. All three of these pre-war Vidović's exhibitions are not only important for the history of his opus but also for the history of Croatian modern painting and visual arts in general. In addition, the time frame they encompass is also the time frame for dating the painting "Split at the old marketplace" which today's collectors and the general public only get to know through this exhibition and auction. The painting "Old marketplace" - as Vidović's title reads - depicts the former playground and training ground of the Hajduk football club. It is painted in a bright and almost glaze-like tempera application during the aforementioned time frame during which the painter finally experienced in Zagreb reading praises of his works in print. These are pictures exhibited in 1938 at a solo exhibition in the Ullrich salon (more than 100 paintings) and at the famous exhibition "Half a century of Croatian art" (six paintings) in the Mestrović's House of Fine Arts. In 1940, Vidović came to Zagreb to participate in the First Annual Exhibition of Croatian Artists in the Mestrović Pavilion. Reviews and reflections in the print media were real panegyrics within which Vidović's oils were compared, actually equated, with Bonard and Utrillo, and others with Sisley and Pissarro. Have they exaggerated? I believe the problem is not whether they have exaggerated or not, but the problem lies in the unnecessary equation of Emanuel Vidović - a native and unique painter of proven grandeur - with any painting giant who would be outside the circle of Vidović's life, painting and artistic preoccupations, which were all pointed towards Venice and Chioggia, then to Split and Trogir, and of course to the home for the family and his own studio. BRP

References

The Galić Art Salon was opened in 1924 with a joint exhibition. Igor Zidić in the catalogue of the retrospective exhibition "Emanuel Vidović", Museum Space, Zagreb, 1987, page 24.

Dimensions

width 66.5 cm, height 63.5 cm

Description

tempera on paper, signed with initials at the bottom right, pencil, "E. V."

Research information

The work is signed, dated and located on the back: E. Vidović, Bulevard M.Gorki, April 1949.

Lot.notes

On the back a copy of the poster for the artist's exhibition in Trogir.

Dating

1949.

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