Within the history of Slovenian art, Janez Potočnik stands as a unique
enigma between the generation of Baroque painters and the generation of artists
of Romanticism, or Biedermeier respectively. In view of the fact that he did
not belong to the painters of Layer’s circle in Kranj, it seems reasonable to regard
his oeuvre as a direct succession of Baroque tradition, with Anton Cebej of
Ljubljana as its last representative. The meaning of Potočnik’s painting lies
mainly in bourgeois portraits, although his first images of the rising middle
class are schematic, rendered rather awkwardly and painted without real
creative imagination. It has been believed so far that the quality of Potočnik’s
rather ample oeuvre gradually declined, which was ascribed by authors to his
handicap, for he was held to have been deaf and speech-impaired. He has left
behind a bundle of academy drawings, outstanding in their ambition, now housed
in the National Gallery of Slovenia and the National Museum of Slovenia. Older
authors reported that Potočnik had studied at the Vienna Academy, but Izidor
Cankar and Viktor Steska could not find any positive evidence to this fact, so
Cankar believed that the drawings had been made in Carniola.
Izidor Cankar was misled by the erroneous reading of the surname in the
matriculation register of the Vienna Academy for the year 1775, which was read Pogatshnigkinstead of the correct Pototschnigk,
painter. This correction confirms that Potočnik was indeed enrolled at the
Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, at least in the academic year 1775/1776 – two
of his drawings are dated 1776. Even more: almost half of the surviving
drawings are copied from the examples by Jakob Matthias Schmutzer (1733–1811),
director of the Kupferstecherakademie (Copper-Plate-Engraving and Drawing
School) that was in 1772 integrated into the Academy. Schmutzer, being
director, decided on the admission of candidates also after this year. He had
two blind children himself, and for this reason he possibly had more compassion
for the deaf painter; very likely he was his mentor. It was Cankar who already
expressed some doubt about the degree of Potočnik’s handicap. Namely, Potočnik
was able to write, since a private tutor was employed in their family, but
before going to study in Vienna, he must have been trained as a painter
somewhere in Carniola. He signed and mainly also dated more than half of his works
documented so far, numbering more than a hundred.
Between 1772 and 1778, Jožef Potočnik, Janez’s younger brother, was also
staying in Vienna, studying law at the University there and most probably
taking care of his elder brother. However, Janez remained in the imperial city
only for two semesters of the academic year. There may have been two reasons.
First, the students who failed to reach the required standards after the first
year were dismissed. And second, in September 1776, his father Gašper Potočnik
died, which possibly had such a negative impact on the family’s budget that it was
impossible to provide for two students in Vienna.
When
compared to Schmutzer’s examples, Potočnik’s drawings show his copying skills,
whereas his drawings after live models are weaker. He proves to be the same
also in his later painting work. Where he could rely on a concrete example, he
was much more effective than in compositions of his own invention. This double
characteristic can be traced from the very beginning of his artistic production.
The models by Baroque predecessors were gradually losing topicality, which
Potočnik was unable to compensate for with his own creativity. Scarce
biographical data nevertheless show that he lived in Ljubljana as a painter on
his own, supporting his aged mother, as well as his sister who ran the
household and died at the same address fourteen years after him. The bundle of
Potočnik’s drawings from the Academy bears historical testimony and is
exceptional by its extent and ambition in our heritage but exerted no significant
influence on the painter’s oeuvre, as Izidor Cankar has already observed.
The exhibition includes 58 drawings, 2 canvases and 1
watercolour.
Author of the exhibition
Andrej Smrekar
Project leader
Katra Meke
Conservation-restoration works for the exhibition
Tina Buh
Exhibition set-up
Andrej
Smrekar, Matic Tršar
The works of art were loaned by
National
Gallery of Slovenia
National
Museum of Slovenia
The project was supported by
14 December
2023–17 March 2024
National
Gallery of Slovenia
Narodni dom Gallery
Cankarjeva 20
1000 Ljubljana