| Zdenka
Pexidr - Srica 1886 - 1972
Education:
Painting course with Csikos and Crncic (Zagreb c. 1906)
Provisional College of Arts and Crafts (from 1907.) Academy
in Munich (1910-1912)
Biography: Daughter of a high school principal Gustav Pexidr
(1859-1931) and a rich patrician from Novalja, Mica (Marija)
Srica (formerly the noble family of Fortuna). At the Academy
in Munich (1910) she met a colleague, student of Fine Arts,
Erich Max Sieger from the German ducal family of Hohenlohe
Bartenstein who, together with his sister, was the owner
of the Götzenburg Castle in Mockmuhl. The castle is renowned
for its former owner Götz von Berlichingen (1480-1562),
the famous German "Götz of the iron hand". By
marrying Erich (31 January 1914), Zdenka became the daughter
in law in the castle, but could not endure the medieval
atmosphere for long. After giving birth to a daughter in
Novi Vinodol in 1918, she refused to return to the castle
(where Erich, according to the family information, perished
in the shelter during the bombardment at the end of the
Second World War). As a widow she married again the publisher
and diplomat Pavle Ostovic, a great friend of the sculptor
Ivan Metrovic.
The personal and artistic biography of this painter is fascinating;
she excelled in the technique of water colour painting and
in motifs of everyday home life, especially of children,
and was also remarkable at drawing human and animal bodies.
The first Croatian book by Kosta Strajnic (Zagreb, 1916)
on the phenomenon of women in art, deals with the painting
of Zdenka Pexidr and with the work of the sculptor and medallist
Iva Simonovic.
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