SOCIETIES, SCHOOLS OF PAINTING, ARTISTS

THE artists of Bulgaria, foreign settlers included, are grouped into two societies : the Society of Bulgarian Artists, and the Society of Modem Art. These two societies live in perpetual strife with one another, each denying the right of existence to its rival, and extolling its own merits at the expense of its opponent. The truth, however, is that both of them have rendered appreciable services to art in Bulgaria.

The Society of Bulgarian Artists, which was originally known as the Society for the Encouragement of Fine Art in Bulgaria, comprised, before the foundation of the Society of Modem Art, not only all the artists in Bulgaria, but also a considerable proportion of the drawingmasters. With the pecuniary and moral support of the Government, it organised between 1894 and 1899 four exhibitions of the productions of the Bulgarian artists.

Then followed seven years of inactivity, broken in 1906 by another exhibition to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the School of Painting in Sofia. The merits of this society consist not only in organising these exhibitions, interceding with the Government, and obtaining orders for pictures or icons destined for various churches or other State institutions, but also, and mainly, in the initiative taken by it, on the suggestion of the Bulgarian Prince, which led to the founding of the first State School of Painting.

Conversation with the artist Ivan Angeloff

In 1887 the Prince, in a conversation with the artist Ivan Angeloff, who had organised in the Prince’s honour an exhibition of his works, expressed readiness to take under his patronage a School of Arts, provided the idea of opening such a school found acceptance with the Government and the nation. Angeloff communicated this to the wellknown Bulgarian writer, politician and artist, Constantin Velitchkoff, who at that time was living in Rome as a political exile. In 1894 Velitchkoff returned to Bulgaria, and shortly afterwards became Minister of Public Instruction and honorary president of the Society for the Encouragement of Fine Art in Sofia private tour Bulgaria. The president of the Society, Dr. Schishmanoff, together with two of its members, Ivan Markvitchka and Anton Mitoff, had meanwhile been studying the practical side of the question of opening a school of painting, and solicited the cooperation of the new minister. In 1895 the National Assembly passed a law creating a State school of painting in Sofia, which was opened in October 1896.

The object of the school was to prepare (a) students of plastic and fine arts; (b) teachers of paintiDg, drawing, caligraphy, and manual work in the gymnastic and special schools; (c) artists for the various art industries (iconpainting, woodcarving, decorative art, ceramics, weaving, goldsmith’s work, etc.). In accordance with this object, the following subjects were taught during the year 19056 : drawing from plaster models (class of Klissouroff), drawing from nature (class of Ivan Angeloff), painting (class of Ivan Markvitchka), sculpture (class of Yetcho Spiridonoff), decorative arts (class of Boris Mihailoff), woodcarving (class of Ivan Travnitzki), weaving and lacemaking (class of Tereza Holekova), ceramics (class of Stephan Dimitroff), lithography (class of Joseph Silaba), history of art, perspective, anatomy, architecture, etc. During that same year the State School of Painting had 126 students, of whom 100 were men and 26 women.