73. Portrait of Antonija Tkalčić [1928.]

Painter Omer Mujadžić, as an extraordinary portraitist, demonstrated his skill at the very beginning of his fruitful and exceptionally personal creative years. Educated in the best tradition of the Zagreb Academy of Fine Arts (1918-1924) and enriched by Parisian experience (1925-1926), Mujadžić, with his unique sense for authentic painterly values and subdued palette tones, built his individual painting expression, making him a particularly shining artistic phenomenon in the context of Croatian painting of the 20th century. These are characteristics that stand out in his work in the field of portraiture, as well as in the field of figural compositions, nudes and still lifes. The subtle plastic modeling of the young lady's bust, the fluid light that wraps her face and bust like a splint, and the harmony of his painterly musicality are also the characteristics and values of his post-academic painting of Zagreb and Parisian provenance, which he moved away from the "rural" episode in the late 1920s and broke into the top of the painting production of that time. Surely contributed to this were the painter's very successful appearances at exhibitions of the Zagreb Spring Salon, where in 1927, among 30 paintings, he exhibited four portraits of family members, and at the XXVI Salon exhibition held in 1928. , among twelve oil paintings, he also exhibited a "Portrait Where", which we are convinced is about Mrs. Antonija Tkalčić, which we exhibit at the pre-auction exhibition. The extensive representation of Mujadžić's paintings at prestigious Spring Salon exhibitions, which were, nota bene, juried, speaks best about the already reached peaks of painting skills in his works achieved in just under five post-academic years. The painting work is based on the painting tradition of the highest rank and on the measured adoption of positivist achievements of modern painting expression. In 1931, Omer Mujadžić was appointed professor of painting at the Zagreb Academy of Fine Arts, where with a lot of patience and understanding he taught and mentored students of the painting department for a full 42 years. BRP

Dimensions

width 70 cm, height 93 cm

Description

oil on canvas, signed and dated lower left, in black, "Mujadžić (19)28."

Research information

The work was exhibited at the XXVI Exhibition of the Spring Salon (April 15 - May 15, 1928) and is listed in the exhibition catalogue under cat. no. 45, under the title "Portrait of a Lady."

Dating

1928.

PROVENANCE

The historical collection of Antonija Tkalčić Koščević (Lipnik near Karlovac, 1891. – Zagreb, 1981.) and Vladimir Tkalčić (Zagreb, 1883. – Zagreb, 1971.), art historians, ethnologists and long-term directors of the Museum of Arts and Crafts. Antonija Tkalčić Koščević (1891.–1981.) was one of the first academically educated female artists in Croatia. She studied sculpture at the Temporary Higher School of Art and Craft in Zagreb, and then privately with Rudolf Valdec and Bela Čikoš Sesija. Despite early praise, she did not develop a public artistic career, but devoted herself to making small portrait busts of family members and friends, and worked as a draftsman at the Archaeological Museum in Zagreb, and later volunteered at the Museum of Art and Crafts. She is most remembered for three unique memoir notebooks created in the early 1950s, dedicated to Rudolf Valdec, Ivka Orešković and Sava Šumanović. Stored in the Graphic Collection of HAZU, these notebooks connect personal memories with the cultural and social history of early 20th century Zagreb. Most likely, Tkalčić Koščević met Mujadžić in the mid-1920s, not only through artistic circles, but also because Mujadžić's studio was in the late 1920s within the Archaeological Museum in Zagreb, where she also worked.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

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