Matej Sternen
Matej Sternen (20 September 1870 – 28 June 1949) was a leading Slovene Impressionist painter. Sternen was born in the Carniolan village of Verd—now part of the Municipality of Vrhnika, Slovenia, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire—and baptized Matthæus Strnen. He attended the secondary school in Krško and attended technical school in Graz between 1888 and 1891.
Also recorded as Mathäus Sternen · Matthäus Sternen
Matej Sternen
Fran Vesel · This image is available from the Digital Library of Slovenia under the reference number XDUTHSMF This tag does not indicate the copyright status of the attached work. A normal copyright tag is still r · Public domain
- Born
- 1870. · Verd.
- Died
- 1949. · Ljubljana.
- Nationality
- Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Kingdom of Yugoslavia, Kingdom of Serbs and Croats and Slovenes.
- Occupation
- painter, conservator, restorer and artist.
- Education
- Academy of Fine Arts Vienna and Anton Ažbe art school.
- Teachers
- Anton Ažbe.
- Languages
- Slovene.
VALÉORINE Encyclopedia
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Documentary summary
Matej Sternen (20 September 1870 – 28 June 1949) was a leading Slovene Impressionist painter. Sternen was born in the Carniolan village of Verd—now part of the Municipality of Vrhnika, Slovenia, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire—and baptized Matthæus Strnen. He attended the secondary school in Krško and attended technical school in Graz between 1888 and 1891.
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Authority files
wikidata · Q4442392 · wikipedia · Matej Sternen
In this article
Works
Works
After finishing the school in Graz, he enrolled at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. In 1897 he left Vienna for Munich, where he studied at Anton Ažbe's private art school. Sternen became acquainted with Impressionism already in Graz. In Vienna, he saw the original paintings of several French impressionists. In Munich he studied with fellow countrymen Rihard Jakopič and Matija Jama, two other representatives of Slovene impressionism. Unlike them, Sternen preferred figurative art, and his work consists mostly of portraits and female nudes. He became known chiefly as a restorer and conservator of old paintings, and dedicated the majority of his later life to restoration. He partly restored and partly repainted the ceiling in the Franciscan church in Ljubljana, originally decorated by Matevž Langus in the mid 19th century, but badly damaged in the 1895 Ljubljana earthquake. During World War II, Sternen did not take a political stance, although he was occasionally critical of the communist-led Liberation Front and its activities. In 1944 he painted a portrait of Home Guard General Leon Rupnik, who was the patron of his only solo exhibition in 1944. After the war, he was sent to a prison camp in the Kočevje area, but he was released after six months due to the intervention of prominent acquaintances. He taught painting to Aleksa Ivanc Olivieri. He died in Ljubljana on 28 June 1949 and was buried in Žale Cemetery.
Matej Sternen studied at Academy of Fine Arts Vienna and Anton Ažbe art school. Training under Anton Ažbe is recorded. The recorded working language is Slovene. Work by Matej Sternen is recorded in the collections of National Gallery of Slovenia.
Rdeči parazol (The Red Parasol) (1904), National Gallery, Ljubljana Ulica v Münchnu (A Street in Munich), National Gallery, Ljubljana Pomladno sonce (Spring Sun), National Gallery, Ljubljana Na divanu (On the Couch) (1909), National Gallery, Ljubljana Frescos on ceiling of the Franciscan Church of the Annunciation (1935), In situ, Franciscan Church, Ljubljana
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 2 entries
1870
Matej Sternen born at Verd.
1949
Matej Sternen died at Ljubljana.
Places
Named by the record
Places
Only places the record itself states, plotted where the house gazetteer settles their coordinates. Nothing is inferred from a name or a nationality.
Verd.
Birth place
Ljubljana.
Death place
Primary material
Documents and archives
reference work
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q4442392: Matej Sternen
Reputable secondary · Wikidata
- “Matej Sternen”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
scholarly publication
- Matej Sternen as a Restorer: Selected examples in Slovenia and Croatia, Ars & Humanitas, 2017
Scholarly · Crossref registry · 2017
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Taufbuch. 10. 1870–1894.
- 2.Mrevlje, Neža. Portretist meščanov in ustvarjalec aktov. Nedeljski Dnevnik. 8 February 2023.
- 3.Sternen, Matej. Leon Rupnik (1880–1945). Digitalna Knijižnica Slovenije. Narodna in univerzitetna knjižnica.
Bibliography printed in the source article · 1
- France Stele: Slovene Impressionists, Olympic Marketing Corp, 1980,
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
scholarly publication
Matej Sternen as a Restorer: Selected examples in Slovenia and Croatia, Ars & Humanitas, 2017Crossref registry
Verifiedreference work
Partially resolvedreference work
Partially resolved
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 14 August 2026.
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