Mrkvicka, Ivan
Mrkvička, Ivan
Born Apr. 23, 1856, in Vidim, Bohemia; died May 16, 1938, in Prague. Bulgarian painter and graphic artist.
A Czech by birth, Mrkviéka studied at the Prague (1873–76) and Munich (1876–77) academies of arts. Between 1881 and 1921 he lived in Bulgaria. One of the founders of the State School of Painting in Sofia, he taught there and was the school’s director from 1896 to 1921. He became a member of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences in 1918.
As a representative of democratic realism, Mrkviéka mostly depicted folk festivals and scenes of peasant labor, reproducing the distinctive Bulgarian national costumes and customs (The Bazaar in Plovdiv, 1888; Ruchenitsa; Refugees From Thrace, 1897; all housed in the National Art Gallery, Sofia). He is also well known as a portraitist and illustrator.