IVANA KOBILCA

She was born in Ljubljana (Slovenia) on 20th December 1861.

She is considered the best Slovenian painter and a key figure from her country’s culture. Most of her paints are portraits, still lives, allegories and religious scenes.

Initially, she studied French, Italian and drawing in the higher school from the Ursulinen in her country. With sixteen years of age, she went with her father to Vienna. She stayed there to study until 1879. Between 1880 and 1881, she continued her formation in Munich.

In 1880 she did her first exhibition in Munich and after this she returned to Ljubljana.

In 1890 she worked in Zagreb (Croatia) and between 1891 and 1892 in Paris.

She became an honoured member of the National society of arts from Paris.

In 1892 she visited Barbizon and she painted there. In 1892 she was in Ljubljana and she visited Florence in 1893. From 1897 to 1905 she lived in Sarajevo and from 1906 to 1914 in Berlin.

In her first paintings, she used darkness paints, only in her pastel paintings used light colours. At the end of her life her paintings were born and impersonal.

She died in Ljubljana in December 1926.

Bettina Berhnard

English for Fun 4B