CRNCIC, MENCI CLEMENT (1865-1930)

*PRICE ON APPLICATION*
 
"Bather On The Rocks (Andriatic Coast)" (c.1915)
Oil on canvas
84 x 72cm
Signed lower right
*private collection, Croatia
 
Crnčić was a pioneering and famous Croatian painter, printmaker, teacher and museum director. He studied painting and drawing in Vienna and Munich, and trained in graphic arts in Vienna, studying etching and engraving. He was the first artist in the Croatian graphic tradition to abandon a strictly linear style and use tonal variation to create contrasting areas of light and shade. Crnčić established himself as a marine artist with a series of paintings of the Istrian peninsula and the Adriatic coast. He was one of the founders of the first private painting school in Zagreb, which grew to become part of the Academy of Fine Arts, Zagreb. He taught there until the end of his life. He became a member of the Yugoslav Academy of Sciences and Arts in 1919, and was the Director of The Strossmayer Gallery of Old Masters from 1920 to 1928. Crnčić is among the founders of modern Croatian painting, contributing greatly to its development. He promoted landscape painting, mainly seascapes, using light, colour, and soft strokes in an impressionist style. He was the founder of modern Croatian graphic art, and played an important role in teaching several generations of Croatian painters.