Sunday, January 17, 2010

Vlaho Bucovac

Vlaho Bucovac (1855 - 1922) was a Croatian portraitist, history painter, and muralist. He was born to Italian parents and studied in Paris under Cabanel, along the way absorbing some of the ideas of the Impressionists.

His portrait of Barun Vranicany (detail) shows solid drawing and a sense of the pointillist’s small touch.

A photo shows his working method. The courtyard setting offers soft and indirect light, perfect for a portrait. The paintbox, mahl stick, and paint rag sit on a chair in front of him. His handheld palette has a single medium cup. He holds about three extra brushes in his left hand.


Another photo shows him working out the full-size drawing for a mural, while referring to a smaller layout.

'Portrait of a Daughter' shows what’s possible with a disciplined limited palette, probably something like black, Indian red, and yellow ochre.

Thanks, Valentino Radman.
More at Wikipedia.

4 comments:

Dan Gurney said...

I am curious: how do you structure your study art history? Do you schedule time for this study, setting aside time each week for your investigations? Or do you pretty much follow your interests?

N'Der said...

Hello

For the black he used I would say an Ivory black. A black which is a little blue.

James Gurney said...

Dan, I'm totally unstructured. I try to jot down a note whenever I run across something new. This post was thanks to Valentino Radman, who sent me the images. Check out the link to his work at the end of the post.

Anonymous said...

James, thanx for introducing one of the most important turn of the century Croatian painters to your audience. For those interested, I uploaded some additional Bukovac's images on my blog.