Portrait of prof. Ivan Shishmanov

Mrkvička created the most outstanding portraits of the epoch, while his endeavours in the spheres of historical composition and landscape undoubtedly exerted an influence on the future development of art. As a founder member and long standing director, and a professor, at our Academy of Arts, Mrkvička contributed to the education of the first generations of Bulgarian artists. He lived and worked in Bulgaria during an exceedingly eventful time of creativity, of clashes, of views and proclaimed aesthetic ideals, of artistic discoveries and plastic compromises. His talent and contribution to the development of our painting as a "storyteller" in genre painting, and as a perspective portraitist of the new society, are revealed to the full; we can judge them genuinely and on their merits against the background of the specific "milieu"of the time, loaded as it was with expectation, aspiration and exploration.