Matija Jama facts for kids
Matija Jama (born January 4, 1872 – died April 6, 1947) was a famous Slovene painter. He is known as one of the best Impressionist painters in the Slovene Lands. He worked alongside other important artists like Rihard Jakopič, Ivan Grohar, and Matej Sternen.
About His Life
Matija Jama was born in Ljubljana, which is the capital city of Slovenia. He went to primary school and a lower grammar school there. Later, his family moved to Zagreb, where he started to show a real interest in painting while in high school.
After finishing high school, he began studying law. But in 1890, he decided to stop his law studies. He moved to Munich to join a private art school instead. Two years later, he came back to Ljubljana. He earned money by drawing pictures and illustrations for a magazine called Dom in svet.
With help from the local government in Carniola, he went back to Munich in 1897. There, he joined Anton Ažbe’s art school. The next year, he started at the Munich artistic academy, but he didn't finish his studies there. In 1902, he married Luiza van Raders, who was also a painter from the Netherlands.
Matija Jama lived and worked in many different places across Europe. He spent time in parts of Austria, Croatia, Germany, and the Netherlands. Later, he returned to the Slovene Lands. He lived for a while in Bled and then in Volčji Potok. Finally, he settled down in Rašica and then in Ljubljana.
Besides painting with oil, Jama also designed posters and drew illustrations. He even illustrated the first versions of several books by the famous writer Ivan Cankar. As he got older, he moved past his earlier style, which was influenced by the Vienna Secession art movement. He became very inspired by Italian and French Impressionist painters, especially Claude Monet. During his most active years, Jama mostly painted landscapes. Even his early illustrations and portraits often featured detailed views of cities or nature.
In his later years, Jama worked closely with other Slovene Impressionists, especially Rihard Jakopič. They painted together in places like Donji Čemehovec and Kraljevec na Sutli. This was when Jama truly started to study how light looked in his paintings, becoming a true Impressionist. In this final period of Slovene Impressionism, he first painted a lot with watercolours. But around 1900, he stopped using watercolours and focused on painting with oil on canvas. He created most of his best-known artworks using oil paints, a technique he continued until the end of his life.
Selected Paintings
Matija Jama created about 450 paintings. Here are some of his most famous ones:
- At meal ("Pri obedu")
- Garden ("Vrt")
- Bridge on Dobra ("Most na Dobri")
- By the river in spring/ spring-landscape with city at Blejsko jezero
- Willow Trees ("Vrbe")
- Ljubljana in Snow ("Ljubljana v snegu")
- Saint Michlaus ("Šenklavž")
- Croatian Farmer ("Hrvaški kmet")
- Wheel dance ("Kolo")
- Village in Winter ("Vas v zimi")
- Blossoming Apple Tree ("Cvetoča jablana")
- Red Parason ("Rdeči parazol")
- On the Divan ("Na divanu")
