Todor Švrakić (1882–1931) was a Bosnian

painter Painting is a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or "Support (art), support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with ...

. He was one of the early 20th century pioneers of Bosnian painting within the European style and is considered one of the Western Balkans' most notable watercolor artists. "Stotinu godina od prve izložbe u prijedorskom Muzeju Kozare" (in Bosnian - trans. "One hundred years since the first exhibition at the Kozara Museum, Prijedor", by Snežana Tasić, Glass Srpske, 5.4.2010
accessed 14 February 2010

Biography

Švrakić was born in

Prijedor Prijedor ( sr-cyrl, Приједор, ) is a city in Republika Srpska, Bosnia and Herzegovina. As of 2013, it had a population of 80,916 inhabitants within its administrative limits. Prijedor is situated in the northwestern part of the Bosanska ...

. His father, a carpenter, initially apprenticed Švrakić to a tailor, but his interest in painting took Švrakić, aged 16, to Belgrade, where he studied at Risto Vukanović's private painting school. He went on to study at the art academy in

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

under Pavle

Paja Jovanović Pavle "Paja" Jovanović ( sr-cyr, Павле "Паја" Јовановић; ; 16 June 1859 – 30 November 1957) was a Serbian realist painter who painted more than 1,100 works including: '' The Wounded Montenegrin'' (1882), '' Decorating of the ...

. He subsequently gained a scholarship to the

Academy of Fine Arts The following is a list of notable art schools. Accredited non-profit art and design colleges * Adelaide Central School of Art * Alberta College of Art and Design * Art Academy of Cincinnati * Art Center College of Design * The Art Institute ...

in Prague. Following his return to Bosnia, he became one of Bosnia's most prominent artists and foremost aquarellists. Prof. Ahmed Burić, dating the beginnings of Bosnian painting back to Bosnia's occupation by the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1878, mentions Todor Švrakić, along with Gabrijel Jurkić, Lazar Drljača and

Petar Šain Petar Šain (1885–1965) was a Bosnian artist.The Art treasures of Bosnia and Herzegovina ed. Đuro Basler, Mirza Filipović, Sulejman Balić - 1987 "..and Petar Sain (1885-1965), a faithful follower of ..." He was one of the first generation of ar ...

, as one of the first modern Bosnian artists. Along with Pero Popović,

Karlo Mijić Karlo Mijić (1887–1964) was a Yugoslav painter noted for his paintings of the Bosnian landscape. References {{DEFAULTSORT:Mijic, Karlo 1887 births 1964 deaths Yugoslav painters ...

, and

Branko Radulović Branko Radulović (1881–1916) was a Serbian painter. He was one of the first group of modern-day academically-trained painters which emerged on the Belgrade art scene in Bosnia and Hercegovina at the turn of the 20th century. Among them were: Br ...

, he was one of Bosnia's first academically-trained artists. Conservative in outlook, they opted for a naturalistic style, with an inclination for ethnographic subjects, but they opened up the way for the next generation of more innovative artists."The Austro-Hungarian Period in Bosnia-Herzegovina - Cultural Politics in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the creation of the Western type of art" by Aida Lipa, Kakanien Revisited, 26.5.2006
accessed 14 February 2011 In 1907 Popović, Radulović and Švrakić exhibited in one of the two exhibitions that year that marked the beginnings of the modern painting tradition in Bosnia. He exhibited his artworks as a part of

Kingdom of Serbia The Kingdom of Serbia was a country located in the Balkans which was created when the ruler of the Principality of Serbia, Milan I of Serbia, Milan I, was proclaimed king in 1882. Since 1817, the Principality was ruled by the Obrenović dynast ...

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. During

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

several war artists were wounded, captured and interned in prison camps in

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

, and

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

, notably Todor Švrakić and Nikola Džanga were among them. Luckily, both survived the ordeal to continue with their respective careers. The Kozara Museum in Prijedor owns a number of Švrakić's pictures and in 2010 hosted an exhibition of his work commemorating the hundredth anniversary of Švrakić's own 1910 exhibition in Prijedor. Švrakić died in

Sarajevo Sarajevo ( ), ; ''see Names of European cities in different languages (Q–T)#S, names in other languages'' is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Bosnia and Herzegovina, largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a population of 2 ...

in 1931.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Svrakic, Todor 1882 births 1931 deaths People from Prijedor Bosnia and Herzegovina painters 20th-century Bosnia and Herzegovina painters

Biography

See also

References