Marijan Trepše

Who was Marijan Trepše?

Marijan Trepše was a Croatian painter, graphic artist and set designer, considered to be one of the key figures in Croatian art in the early part of the 20th century. In 1919 the seventh exhibition of the Spring Salon opened at the Crafts school in Zagreb. Exhibiting for the first time together, Milivoj Uzelac, Vilko Gecan, Marijan Trepše and Vladimir Varlaj dominated the exhibit with their expressionist works. The Prague Four, as they became known, had returned to Zagreb that year from their studies at the Prague academy and the work of these young painters brought in new expressionist ideas that were to dominate the Croatian art scene of the 1920s.

Together with Gecan, Uzelac and Varlaj, with whom he was later to exhibit as the Group of Four, Marijan Trepše represents the link through which Miroslav Kraljević’s style evolved into expressionism. Trepše’s own art moved from early expressionist and classicist inspirations to more open colour and freedom of gesture. His early work was characterised by interiors with figures, generally featuring a single woman.