Original scientific paper

Josip Lalić’s Dubrovnik Period

Rozana Vojvoda ; Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Dubrovnik, Dubrovnik
Sanja Žaja Vrbica ; University of Dubrovnik, Art and Restoration Department, Dubrovnik

Abstract

The paper discusses the characteristics of Dubrovnik-based activity of Josip Lalić (1867–1953), a painter from Split educated in Venice stylistically related to Academism, en plein air painting and Impressionism. On the basis of press reports and other sources, the authors analyse his exhibition activity during the period spent in Dubrovnik and present new findings on his public commissions, among which a prominent place is occupied by the Allegory of Charity above the side entrance to the Rector’s Palace which substituted an older Baroque painting.
Special attention is given to works depicting ethnographic motifs, especially urban genre scenes which capture the former picturesque life within the city walls of Dubrovnik. They are also characterized by Orientalist tendencies, as well as reflections of the dissemination of documentary recording of folk costumes in drawings and watercolours that became increasingly present in Croatian art in early 20th century. Josip Lalić reached the height of his artistic expression during the Dubrovnik period in his intimately rendered and melancholic landscapes and vedute which brought him closest to Impressionist principles. This becomes evident in motifs boldly cut off by the margins, diagonal advances into the background of pictorial space, complementary coloured shades, light colours and revisits of the same motif in different seasons or different parts of the day. The authors also discuss the painter’s masterly rendered watercolour compositions in which he managed to evoke the atmosphere and particular features of the motif through reduced pictorial means.

Keywords

Josip Lalić; Dubrovnik in early 20th century; Impressionism; landscape; ethnographic motifs; Allegory of Charity; Holy Sepulchre

Hrčak ID:

157253

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/157253

Publication date:

1.1.2016.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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