CROATIAN FINE ART, Ferdo Kovačević

Ferdo Kovačević, Bura (Bora), 1910, (oil on canvas, 92.8 x 140.8) The educational path of Ferdo Kovačević (Zagreb, 1870-1927) was similar to those of other artists of his generation. After graduating from the Zagreb School of Crafts, he studied at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Vienna (1889 - 1993), then travelled to northern Italy and lived in Florence. He was one of the founders of the Society of Croatian Artists in 1897 and the exhibitor at the celebrated Croatian Salon in 1898 at the Art Pavilion. He is also the founder and a member of the Croatian section of the Association of Yugoslav Artists "Lada" (1904). In 1905 he became a professor at the Zagreb School of Crafts and in 1917 at the Arts and Crafts College. Izidor Kršnjavi hired him as a student for decorating the palace of the Department of Theology and Education, where in the Pompeii room he painted portraits of Homer, Euripides, Sophocles and Emperor Trajan. For the National and University Library he painted vedute of Croatian cities (1912-1913). His friendship and cooperation with Vlaho Bukovac determined the painter's further artistic journey. Giving serious consideration to Bukovac's reference to the necessity of a plein air approach in Croatian painting, Kovačević decided to exclusively paint the landscape of the Croatian continent. The picturesque scenes of the rivers Sava, Korana and Orljava, and their shores and shutters at different seasons thus occupy the central place in Kovačević's opus. Thanks to his remarkable sensibility, his special interest in the play of light and shadow and the specific interpretation of colours, Kovačević's opus belongs to the most important ones in Croatian landscape painting. Bura (Bora) - often referred to as Vihor (Whirlwind) or Oluja (Storm) - is a representative work of the painter's mature period. Although it is not one of the snow-covered winter landscapes with bare willow branches, which were particularly emphasized in Kovačević's opus, all the key elements characteristic of his interpretation of the landscape can be found in this painting. The undulating water surface with the reflection of the coastal vegetation, bent branches in red and yellow autumn colours, and dark stormy sky, testify to the strength and beauty of nature, which was Kovačević's constant inspiration. Petar Prelog, Ph.D., senior scientific associate at the Institute of Art History