Slava Raškaj

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Slava Raškaj (January 2, 1877, Ozalj, Croatia — March 29, 1906, Zagreb) was an artist considered to be one of the first Croatian watercolourists.

[edit] Early years

Slava was born in the family of the local administrator Vjekoslav Raškaj and his wife Olga, and her name Slava means glory in Croatian. Until the age of seven she lived with her family.

Being deaf ever since her birth, due to the difficulties in communication, she gradually withdrew from people, but not before her talent was noticed. Until the age of fifteen, (1885 - 1893), she lived in an institution for deaf children in Vienna, Austria. Under the influence of an art instructor she kept developing in the area of painting and drawing.

Back home, in 1895, persuaded by the local teacher in Ozalj Ivana Otoić-Muha, she left for Zagreb to attend the art school. In 1896 her instructor was painter Bela Čikoš-Sesija.

Slava's repertoire was peculiar - dark shades of dead nature, watercolor paintings containing strange objects as the starfish, silver jewelry chest, and even more interesting, the pairs of objects as a red rose and an owl, or a lobster and a fan.

[edit] Independent artist

Mrs. Otoić helped her to open her own atelier. It was the small, white painted room, once the mortuary. Her first aquarel was done there and most probably today's famous self-portrait from the year 1898. Next year, the actress spent at home in Ozalj, wandering in the nature, drawing the landscapes, perfecting her favoured medium technique, enriching them with her already unique and distinguished style and sensitivity.

Her works has been exhibited since 1898 in art pavilions of Zagreb, Moscow and Saint Petersburg. It was the best part of her short career when most valuable works were done, including:

“Stablo u snijegu” (Tree in the snow)
“Rano proljeće” (Early spring)
“Proljeće u Ozlju” (Spring in Ozalj)
“Zimski pejsaž” (Winter landscape)
“Lopoči” (Water lillies)

Soon, unfortunate first symptoms of the disease started to show up - loneliness, alienation, need for privacy and nature. Old abandoned mills, depth of the canyon of Kupa river, ruins started to be the focus of her mind.

In 1902, due to chronic depression, aggression and other psychological symptoms she was institutionalised. She died March 29, 1906.