PAINTING OF THE DAY: “Liqeni i Pogradecit” (The Lake of Pogradec) – by Vangjush Mio, a 1929 landscape

In the painting above, the artist Vangjush Mio has depicted the Lake of Pogradec in warm colours and soft light, capturing the tranquillity and beauty of the natural landscape.

The work was painted in 1929. The reflection of the water creates a sense of harmony, showing the artist's intimate bond with nature and his homeland.

Vangjush Mio is considered the most accomplished Albanian Impressionist of the 20th century.

Well trained as an artist by two different art schools, those of Bucharest and Rome, both very important in his development as an artist, after completing his higher studies he returned to his beloved Korça, a cultured, art-loving town, where he set up his studio and devoted himself to painting.

From 1920 to 1924 he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome, and in the 1920s he travelled all over Italy.

When he returned to Korça, the most cultured and developed town in Albania at the time, he founded the fine arts society and exhibited his work on various occasions, becoming one of the most famous Albanian painters of that period.

From 1934 he was also a drawing teacher at the town's French Lycée.

In 1965 the Albanian documentary "Vangjush Mio, piktor i popullit" (Vangjush Mio, People's Painter) was made, covering the painter's life and work.