And then he was gone - paintings by Josip Račić

Self-portrait, 1907.

Račić is considered one of the most important and most enigmatic figures in the history of Croatian modern art. From humble beginnings he had, before the age of twenty, appeared in Munich - one of the most lively and creative art centers in Europe at the time - and with three colleagues soon formed what came to be called Die Kroatische Schule (The Croatian School; in Croatian art history they are known as the Munich Circle or the Munich Four.) Within four short years he produced a remarkably mature body of work, almost all of which was created while he was still a student. Three months after turning twenty-three he was dead.

The Girl with a Hat, 1907.

Female Portrait, 1906.

A Man in a Red Vest, 1907.

Lady in White, 1908.

The Girl in Front of the Mirror, 1908.

Self-portrait, 1908.

Lady in Black, 1907.

Portrait of an Old Man, 1907.

Portrait of Artist’s Sister, 1907.

Head of an Old Woman, 1906.

Mother and a Child, 1908.

Portrait of an Old Friend, 1907.

Portrait of a Girl.

Self-portrait, 1906.

***

Josip Račić (22 March 1885, Zagreb – 19 June 1908, Paris), Croatian painter. He had drawing instruction in elementary school, and at the age of fifteen he began studying lithography as a trade. In 1904 he went to Munich to study at the school of Anton Ažbe who encouraged the nineteen-year-old to go on working and studying. The next year he found employment as a lithographic draughtsman in Berlin, but later that same year returned to Munich and entered the Academy of Fine Arts, where he studied for three years. In 1908 he moved to Paris where, that Spring, he died of gunshot wounds in a hotel room. The reason for his suicide remains a mystery.

1908.