Original scientific paper
Painters in the Studio. Vlaho Bukovac and Bela Csikos Sesia’s Mutual Portrait Painting and Artwork Produced in their first Zagreb Studios
Petra Vugrinec
; Klovićevi Dvori Gallery, Zagreb
Abstract
The newly found painting by Vlaho Bukovac Portrait of Bela Csikos in the Studio provided the occasion for reflection on the relationship between Vlaho Bukovac and Bela Csikos Sesia (Bela Čikoš Sesija) and establishing a more precise chronology of first ateliers which saw the formation of Croatian modern art. Identification of ateliers as artists’ working spaces is important for several significant aspects decisive for the formation of their specific artistic expression which had a prominent impact on the entire generation of first modernist painters in Croatia. Vlaho Bukovac and Bela Csikos Sesia were central figures of the artistic circles in Zagreb at the turn of the 19th to the 20th century. Their collaboration and the works produced as a result of their interaction reveal the two faces of early modernism: one public, distinguished, artistically confident formed under Bukovac’s influence, and on the opposite side an intimate, symbolist and intellectual face shaped as a result of Csikos’s influence on his fellow painters, including his mentor Bukovac. Painters’ studios, from improvised to professional spaces, represented the nursery of ideas and opinions which led to the formation of Croatian Art Nouveau and the detachment of most artists from the Art Association (Društvo umjetnosti). The determination of mutual relationship between Bukovac and Csikos and a more precise chronology of their early years in Zagreb reveal the previously uncharted connections and numerous common elements, inciting new considerations and interpretations of their key works of the period, Csikos’s Circe and Bukovac’s Dubravka and Gundulić’s Dream. The proposed attributions and reinterpretations of extensively studied works represent a contribution to the revaluation of the oeuvres of Vlaho Bukovac and Bela Csikos Sesia in order to uncover the intense interrelation of the two artists, as well as their mutual and reciprocal influence.
Keywords
Vlaho Bukovac; Bela Csikos Sesia; painters’ portraits; studios; Croatian Modernism; Circe; Dubravka
Hrčak ID:
157247
URI
Publication date:
1.1.2016.
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