The Croatian National Revival


Zagreb Vlaho Bukovac 1896 Oil on canvas 125 x 222 cm Ivan Gundulic sitting in an armchair elevated on the left side of a terrace. A pageant of Croat revivalists headed by Ljudevit Gaj approaches him from the right. Gaj is followed by Antun Mihanovic, Janko Draskovic, Dimitrije Demetar, Ivan Mazuranic, Stanko Vraz, Mirko Bogovic, Sidonija Rubido-Erdody, Ivan Kukuljevic Sakcinski, Pavao Stoos, Petar Preradovic, Antun Nemcic, Vatroslav Lisinski, Ferdo Livadic, Ljudevit Vukotinovic and Dragutin Rakovac. The right-hand side of the foreground shows contemporary actors (Adam Mandrovic and Marija Ruzicka Strozzi, Josip Freudenreich). The painting also has a scattering of fairies, fauns and peasants. Signature bottom left: Vlaho Bukovac 1896. The painting was made with the purpose of being copied as an oleograph, and is itself a copy of the great theatre curtain of the Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb, painted in 1895. Vlaho Bukovac (Cavtat, 1855 - Prague, 1922) is the most important figure in Croatian painting at the very end of the 19th century. The Museum holds, apart from this painting, a small view of the baron Vranyczany castle at Oroslavje, as well as six portraits, the most prominent among them being the portrait of Dragutin Khuen Hedervary. The painting was bought in 1971 from the Schulhof family in Zagreb. Hrvatski narodni preporod, (exhibition catalogue), Zagreb, 1985, page 310, catalogue number 1380.




HPM/PMH-019063