oil on canvas, 46 x 60 cm, signed lower right, in black, "Tartaglia"

Marino Tartaglia (1894. – 1984.) was a Croatian painter, art pedagogue and long-time professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb. After completing high school in Split, he continued his education in Zagreb at the Building Professional School under the guidance of Oton Iveković, Ivan Tišov, Robert Frangeš Mihanović and Bela Čikoš Sesija. In Rome, he enrolled at the Instituto Superiore di Belle Arti and became acquainted with the work of Italian futurists. With Carlo Carrà and Giorgio de Chirico, he formed friendships and exhibited. He traveled the world, living and creating between Vienna, Belgrade, and Paris. From 1931, he worked as a teacher at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb, first as a trainee teacher, then as an associate professor, before becoming a regular professor in 1947. His artistic expression evolved over the years from Cézannist post-impressionism to complete abstraction and his body of work included landscapes, still life, portraits, and self-portraits. During his 60-year career, Tartaglia held 30 solo and around 270 group exhibitions in Croatia and around the world and even exhibited at the Venice Biennale in 1940 with painter Milivoj Uzelac and sculptor Frano Kršinić. Several days after completing his final works "My Studio" and "Flowers", Tartaglia passed away due to a car accident, being hit by a tram in Ilica street. His tragic end evokes that of the great Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí, who met a similar fate. His early works were strongly influenced by Paul Cézanne, and his approach to color and carefully composed compositions can be best read in Tartaglia's landscapes from the 1920s. "Coastal landscape" can be dated around 1926-1929, when Tartaglia drew inspiration from his almost two-year visit to France. Residence in Provence, Cézanne's homeland, left an impression on Tartaglia, whose painting style was just taking shape. However, even in such early Tartaglia artistry, there is no room for pentimento or error, he confidently masters the medium and creates this coastal landscape on a clear and courageous drawing on which he then builds the work with a balanced and harmonious palette of tones. By laying semi-transparent layers of color over the initial sketch-like strokes that formed the basis of the composition, Tartaglia not only creates a lyrical depiction of a coastal town, but masterfully records and conveys its atmosphere. The smell of terra rossa and sea salt is in the air, while olive and pine trees sway in the summer breeze breaking the heat of a hot summer day. The houses with harmonious proportions and red roofs coexist with nature as unobtrusive signs of human presence. Behind them, barely noticeable, you can see the sea, whose horizon merges with the blueness of the clear sky and leads the viewer's gaze into the distance.

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