Ažbè, Anton

Born May 30, 1862, in Dolenčica, Slovenia; died Aug. 6, 1905, in Munich. Slovene painter and teacher.

Ažbè studied at the Vienna and Munich academies of art. In such works as Peasant Head (c. 1890), In the Harem (c. 1895), and Negress (c. 1895), all now located in the National Gallery in Ljubljana, Ažbè departed from the academic style and approached the principles of plein air painting. In 1891 he founded a private art school in Munich. Among Ažbè’s students were the Slovene impressionists J. Grohar and M. Jama, the Czech painter L. Kuba, and I. E. Grabar’ and V. V. Kandinsky.