Porto Teplo Menci Clement Crnčić

Menci Clemens Crnčić, Croatian painter, draughtsman and printmaker, studied at the academies in Vienna and Munich before settling in Zagreb, where he and Béla Csikós founded the city’s first private painting school in 1906. From 1907 until his death in 1930, he worked as a lecturer at what is today considered the forerunner of the University of Fine Arts in Zagreb. He worked mainly with printmaking, the Croatian coast being a recurring theme in his engravings.
He played a major role in the creation of modern Croatian painting. His style is strong in colour and decorative; it is characterised by fiery, vivid colours and thick layers of pigment. The influence of both Impressionism and Pointillism can be detected in his works. He was a major force in the development of modern Croatian printmaking, and he taught generations of Croatian artists.
Crnčić was the first Croatian artist to recognise the magic in painting scenes of harbour towns. This works shows Porto Teplo, the port of Novi Vidolski, a town on the northern Croatian coast. A massive tower rises above a building painted in shades of green and a butcher’s shop, while the street winds between the houses before disappearing around a corner. The painting was purchased by the Museum of Fine Arts in 1916 from the Croatian Art Exhibition in Osijek.

Bianka Izsák-Boda