Emanuel Vidović Collection

The Emanuel Vidović Collection is primarily composed of the artist’s own paintings and drawings, acquired by the City of Split from his heirs in 1986 with the intention of establishing the Emanuel Vidović Gallery within the Museum. An additional seven paintings have been added since, along with a portfolio of drawings depicting Split motifs, which the Museum had already purchased in 1967 from the painter’s son, Dr. Slavan Vidović.

Most of the paintings are executed in oil, with a handful in gouache and two in pastel. The drawings are rendered in pencil, charcoal or ink. The collection offers an accurate reflection of the artist’s recurring themes – landscape, interior scenes and still life – and follows his artistic development from 1898 to the end of his life. Many of the works featured are included in surveys of Croatian art, as well as in the monograph, studies and catalogues dedicated to the painter, and are regarded as significant pieces within his oeuvre.

Also included in the Emanuel Vidović Collection is the artist’s original studio, where he lived and worked from 1942 to 1953. The Vidović family donated it to the Split City Museum at the time of the painting acquisition in 1986. The studio inventory comprises more than 700 objects of cultural, art-historical and ethnographic value, along with a substantial collection of photographs and a library of over 400 books.