Martin Mehkek: Seoski sluga (Village Servant), executed in oil on glass in 1974, signed and dated lower right, framed. Dimensions of the painting (without frame): 49 × 44 cm.

This work can be regarded as one of Mehkek’s most representative and artistically accomplished paintings – a true masterpiece of his mature period.

Martin Mehkek (1936–2018) was a Croatian naïve painter associated with the tradition of the Hlebine School. He worked primarily in oil on glass and is known for his highly stylised figures, strong colours and narrative scenes of rural life. A particularly important place in his oeuvre is occupied by psychologically expressive portraits of village servants and Roma, as well as winter landscapes in which he combined decorative qualities with a sense of melancholy and social narrative.

In the painting Sluga (Servant), Mehkek depicts one of his characteristic subjects – a village servant set against a snow-covered rural landscape. The tired, deeply lined face and restrained posture emphasise the hard life and modest social status of the sitter. Mehkek frequently returned to the motifs of village servants and Roma, figures that remained vivid in his memory from childhood. He often placed such characters in winter settings, where the snowy landscape, bare trees and evening sky further heighten the sense of solitude and melancholy.

The text shown in the photographs is summarised from the book Encyclopedia of World Naive Art, 1984.