Ivana Kobilica (Ljubljana, 1861–1926)-Slovene painter

self-portratit                        photography

Ivana Kobilca was born in Ljubljana as a daughter in a wealthy family of a crafstman. Her parents gave great emphasis on education. At first, she learned how to draw, but also French and Italian, in the Ursuline High School in her home town, where her teacher of drawing was Ida Künl. When she was 16, she went with her father to Vienna, where she saw the paintings of old masters that inspired her. From 1879 to 1880, she studied in Vienna, where she copied the paintings at the gallery of the Academy of Arts, and from 1880 to 1881 in Munich. From 1882 to 1889, she continued her studies under Alois Erdtelt. In 1888, she participated for the first time in a public exhibition. At the following exhibition in Munich, her work was spotted and praised by the prominent German art historian Richard Muther. and then returned to Ljubljana. In 1890, she painted in Zagreb. In 1891 and 1892, she painted in Paris in the private school of Henri Gervex. She became an honorary member (membre associée) of Société Nationale des Beaux Arts. In 1892, she also painted in Barbizon. In 1893, she returned to Ljubljana, visited Florence in 1894, and lived in Sarajevo from 1897 to 1905. From 1906 to 1914, she lived in Berlin, and then returned to Ljubljana. At the time of her death in 1926 in Ljubljana, she was described as the greatest Yugoslav female painter.

Kobilca is considered to be the most successful Slovenian woman artist. As her contemporaries already acknowledged, she succeeded in achieving things that her male colleagues were not able to. She exhibited in the respectable Salon in Paris for several times and became a membre associée of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts. She spent most of her creative period in European capitals (Vienna, Munich, Paris, Sarajevo, Berlin) and returned to Ljubljana only at the outset of the Great War. After the Munich phase, in which murky brownish tones prevailed in her colouring, she painted in violet, blue and green tones in Paris, later, during her sojourn in Berlin, also in white ones. Her oeuvre is marked by portrayals of her family members and children, portraits of members of middle-class society, mainly of Ljubljana, genre scenes and especially flowers.

Summer (1889)

 Parisian woman with a letter, 1891-92

 Woman drinking coffee, 1888       

Girl in a red waistcoat, 1886