| Slava
Raškaj (January 2, 1877, Ozalj, Croatia — March
29, 1906, Zagreb) was an artist considered to be one of
the first Croatian watercolourists.
Slava was born in the family of the local administrator
Vjekoslav Raškaj and his wife Olga, and her name Slava means
glory in Croatian. Until the age of seven she lived with
her family.
Being deaf ever since her birth, due to the difficulties
in communication, she gradually withdrew from people, but
not before her talent was noticed. Until the age of fifteen,
(1885 - 1893), she lived in an institution for deaf children
in Vienna, Austria. Under the influence of an art instructor
she kept developing in the area of painting and drawing.
Back home, in 1895, persuaded by the local teacher in Ozalj
Ivana Otoic-Muha, she left for Zagreb to attend the art
school. In 1896 her instructor was painter Bela Cikoš-Sesija.
Slava's repertoire was peculiar - dark shades of dead nature,
watercolor paintings containing strange objects as the sea
star, silver jewelry chest, and even more interesting, the
pairs of objects as a red rose and an owl, or a lobster
and a fan.
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