Slava Raškaj

Slava Raškaj (born 2 January 1877 in Ozalj (now Croatia), † March 29, 1906 in Stenjevac ) was a painter.

Slava Raškaj was deaf and dumb since birth. Your schooling took place in Vienna at an elementary and college for deaf and dumb children, adolescents and adults. In 1892 she returned to Ozalj. Her then teachers in Ozalj and his wife noticed Slava's special talent for painting and drawing. The Croatian-Hungarian painter Bela Cikos - Sesija taught Slava some years in the drawing, in the field of watercolor, pastel and oil painting, although she was actually self-taught. Slava Raškaj made ​​use of two rare in her time painting techniques in image painting: watercolor and pastel style.

Her watercolors represent the culmination of the Croatian watercolor painting in the late 19th century and the early 20th century dar. addition Slava Raškaj was among the first artists who had the right feeling for pigment and water proportion in the watercolor design. In this respect their created watercolors be viewed as an example of an ideal watercolor. My first watercolor was her self-portrait and is probably the most famous of Croatian watercolor painting.

In her artistic work time, two phases are observed. In the first phase, the drawings and the color of the pure expressions identity. In the second phase created their best works, which are primarily expressions of its sensations: Kruske ( Pears ), Suncokreti ( The sunflower) and Potočnice ( Vergißmeinennicht ). At that time the cycle Lopoči arises ( The water lilies ) in which their very best works are included. 1898 she took part in Zagreb at the Art Exhibition of the Society of Croatian artists. At the beginning of 1900, she presented her works in an art exhibition in St. Petersburg and in 1902 in Zagreb. Under severe depression suffering that " The abandoned watermills and Ruins" came in the artistic work expresses Slava Raškaj was admitted to a psychiatric hospital, where she died in 1906 at the age of 29 years.

Nowadays, many institutions and schools employ in Croatia with deaf and disabled children and many of them bear the name of Slava Raškaj. In an effort to wrest their names from oblivion, gave the Croatian Post a stamp with her ​​self-portrait out, and the Croatian People's Bank devoted her a 200 kuna silver coin.