The painting was created in 1938 when Kos attended the All-state Congress of Visual Arts as the representative of the Maribor Brazda artist’s club. In that same year, he also collaborated in the first ever Maribor Visual Artists Exhibition, where he met with other Slovenian artists, among them Karel Jakob from Prekmurje. Kos’ approach to child portraiture closely matched Jakob’s and is reflected in the melancholy of the face and large, expressive eyes. Kos’ artistic expression appears to be subordinated to the representation of content, which is evident from his linear drawing of the depicted object. The sharp lines of the boy’s eyebrows, eyes and lips are characteristic of the style of New Objectivity. Kos is particularly devoted to the details, such as the boy’s crossed arms and face with a meticulously rendered somewhat bored expression. The artist created an enticing contrast between the softly painted clothes and sharper, more detailed lines of the face and hands. Since Kos was working as a professor of drawing in secondary and elementary schools at the time, he most likely depicted one of his students.
(Martina Ivanuša, in the framework of the Creative Path to Knowledge project, Virtual Legends; The investment is co-financed by the Republic of Slovenia and the European Union from the European Social Fund)
