Vlaho BUKOVAC (Croatia, 1855-1922) ✿

Vlaho Bukovac (1855-1922) or Biagio Fagioni was a Croatian painter and academic. His life and work were eclectic, for the artist pursued his career in a variety of locales and his style changed greatly over the course of that career.

Was born in the town of Cavtat south of Dubrovnik in Dalmatia. His father was an Italian from Genoa, while his mother was of Croatian descent.

He showed inclination to drawing in his early childhood, but because of his family's poverty he could not continue his education. At the age of eleven his uncle took him to the United States, where he spent about four hard years.

His uncle soon died. In 1871, he returned to Dubrovnik and embarked as an apprentice on a merchant ship that sailed on regular line Istanbul- Odessa-Liverpool. In 1873 he went to Latin America, where he worked as a letter drawer in a coach factory in Peru.

Three years later he returned to Cavtat. He found a sponsor in the person of Medo Pucic, a poet who recommended him to the archbishop Strossmayer, a very famous and influential Croatian at that time. In 1877 he presented Strossmayer the painting Turkinja u haremu (Turkish woman in harem).

Thanks to Strossmayer's financial support and his own savings he made it to Paris in 1877, where he entered the École des Beaux Arts. His teacher was Alexandre Cabanel. He finished his education in 1880. Bukovac appeared in public as a painter on the Salon de Paris in 1878.