Marko Murat ( sr-Cyrl, Марко Мурат; December 30, 1864 – October 14, 1944) was a

Serbian Serbian may refer to: * someone or something related to Serbia, a country in Southeastern Europe * someone or something related to the Serbs, a South Slavic people * Serbian language * Serbian names See also * * * Old Serbian (disambiguat ...

painter from Dubrovnik who spent 20 years of his life in

Belgrade Belgrade ( , ;, ; names in other languages) is the capital and largest city in Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers and the crossroads of the Pannonian Plain and the Balkan Peninsula. Nearly 1,166,763 m ...

, becoming a leading member of the

Serbia Serbia (, ; Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin and the Balkans. It shares land borders with Hun ...

n and

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art scene at the time, before returning to his home town where he made a substantial mark in art conservation.

Life and work

Murat was born in Šipanska Luka near Dubrovnik in a Catholic family, as his uncle Vice Palunko was a noted priest and assistant bishop, and his older brother Andro Murat also became a priest. After finishing primary school in Dubrovnik in 1883, Marko Murat attended the seminary in

Zadar Zadar ( , ; historically known as Zara (from Venetian and Italian: ); see also other names), is the oldest continuously inhabited Croatian city. It is situated on the Adriatic Sea, at the northwestern part of Ravni Kotari region. Zadar s ...

. In 1886, he submitted a drawing to ''

Vijenac ''Vijenac'' ( English: '' The Wreath'') is a biweekly magazine for literature, art and science, established in December 1993 and published by ''Matica hrvatska'', the central national cultural institution in Croatia. Historical background The ...

'' which was noticed by

Baron Lujo Vranyczany Baron is a rank of nobility or title of honour, often hereditary, in various European countries, either current or historical. The female equivalent is baroness. Typically, the title denotes an aristocrat who ranks higher than a lord or knigh ...

, who financed a scholarship for him to study at the Munich Art Academy. After graduation in 1893, he went to

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus ( legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

and

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

. In 1894 he moved to Belgrade, where he finally settled in 1898, employed at the Second Belgrade Gymnasium. In the year 1900, Marko Murat was a representative of Serbia at the

1900 World's Fair The Exposition Universelle of 1900, better known in English as the 1900 Paris Exposition, was a world's fair held in Paris, France, from 14 April to 12 November 1900, to celebrate the achievements of the past century and to accelerate developme ...

in Paris, where he won the bronze card for his artwork - '' The Arrival of Tzar Dushan of Serbia to Dubrovnik''. In 1905 he was one of the founders of the Art&Craft school, the predecessors to the Academy of Fine Arts, Belgrade. Between 1904 and 1906, he was also a drawing teacher of Royal Prince Aleksandar Karađorđević of Serbia. His works were also exhibited at the 1911 World's Fair in Rome. Murat was a proponent of

Yugoslavism Yugoslavism, Yugoslavdom, or Yugoslav nationalism is an ideology supporting the notion that the South Slavs, namely the Bosniaks, Croats, Macedonians, Montenegrins, Serbs and Slovenes, but also Bulgarians, belong to a single Yugoslav nat ...

who wrote in his autobiography about Serb and Croat tribes of the Yugoslav nation. He exhibited his artworks as a part of

Kingdom of Serbia The Kingdom of Serbia ( sr-cyr, Краљевина Србија, Kraljevina Srbija) was a country located in the Balkans which was created when the ruler of the Principality of Serbia, Milan I, was proclaimed king in 1882. Since 1817, the Princ ...

pavilion In architecture, ''pavilion'' has several meanings: * It may be a subsidiary building that is either positioned separately or as an attachment to a main building. Often it is associated with pleasure. In palaces and traditional mansions of Asia ...

at International Exhibition of Art of 1911. At the outbreak of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fight ...

, he was in Dubrovnik, where

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populou ...

n authorities arrested him and held him in Hungary until May 1916. After the war, Marko Murat had a major role as an art conservator in Dubrovnik, from 1919 to 1932. In 1920 he became an honorary member of

Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts The Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts ( la, Academia Scientiarum et Artium Serbica, sr-Cyr, Српска академија наука и уметности, САНУ, Srpska akademija nauka i umetnosti, SANU) is a national academy and the ...

, and from 1940 he was a regular member. In a personal correspondence with author and critic dr. Milan Šević in 1932, Murat complained that Orthodox Serbs are not acknowledging the Catholic Serb community on the basis of their faith. Marko Murat was one of the first impressionists in the South Slavic region. Landscapes, portraits and historical compositions were his trademark. His works were displayed at almost every relevant exhibition in

Yugoslavia Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label= Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavij ...

and abroad, in

Sofia Sofia ( ; bg, София, Sofiya, ) is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain in the western parts of the country. The city is built west of the Iskar river, and ...

, Munich, Paris, Rome,

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

and

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

. He died in Dubrovnik. The manuscript of his unfinished autobiography was lost after his death and found only recently; it presents a rare description of everyday life in Dubrovnik in the 1860s and 1870s. It was published in 2007 in the Croatian literary magazine '' Kolo''.

References

Sources

Short biography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Murat, Marko 1864 births 1944 deaths 20th-century Serbian people Serb-Catholic movement in Dubrovnik Academy of Fine Arts, Munich alumni 19th-century Serbian painters Serbian male painters 20th-century Serbian painters People from the Kingdom of Dalmatia 19th-century Serbian male artists 20th-century Serbian male artists