Studio: international art (57.1913)

Studio-Talk

“BULGARIAN PEASANT WOMAN IN BRIDAL DRESS

BY J. V. MRICVITCHKA

M. Mrkvitchka arrived in Bulgaria while
still very young, almost immediately after
leaving the Munich School of Fine Arts.
At the invitation of the Government of
Eastern Roumelia he became professor
of drawing at the lycee in Philippopolis,
and settling down in that town remained
there several years. Life in Bulgaria had
not many attractions for the young artist
in those days, particularly in Philip-
popolis, which had no art gallery, no art
collections, no exhibitions. Furthermore,
the articles necessary for his work had to
be got from abroad, and as the railways
which now connect Bulgaria with the
rest of Europe were not then laid, com-
munication was a difficult matter and
months would elapse before orders could
be executed. But the greatest difficulty
of all was to find models. Among the
people there was a widespread super-
stition to the effect that the person whose

SOFIA. — Bulgaria,
like most Oriental
countries, is a land
of contrasts. Seven
or eight centuries ago the
arts flourished there, thanks
to the Byzantine influence ;
then, during five centuries
of Turkish subjugation,
they were so completely
stifled that about the period
of the Liberation, in 1878,
there existed in Bulgaria
neither arts nor artists. But
in less than twenty-five years
after that date the fine arts
in that country had de-
veloped to such an extent
that work by Bulgarian
artists attracted attention
in the Universal Exhibi-
tions of 1900 (Paris) and
1904 (St. Louis).

Foreign artists made their
appearance in Bulgaria soon
after the Liberation, as pro-
fessors of drawing in the
newly created lycees. Among
them was a Czech, Jan
Mrkvicka (Mrkvitchka).

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“BULGARIAN PEASANT WOMEN DANCING” BY J. V. MRKVITCHKA