Jožef Petkovšek

The following year he returned to Verd because of an eye illness, but he continued painting at home and visited Ljubljana, Trieste, and Venice in an effort to further his career.

The fact that he never received a formal education in fine arts and his lack of acceptance apparently created some self-doubt; on some documents he entered "painter?"

[3] In September 1889 the mayor of his town ordered him to be committed to an asylum after he jumped into the Ljubljanica River in a paranoid attempt to hide from the authorities.

He destroyed a painting of his wife in her wedding dress, which fellow painter Matej Sternen considered one of his finest works, sometime during this time period.

Because of his constant battles with mental health, his financial problems persisted; in 1892 he sold some of his paintings to settle debts, and his house was the only possession that he maintained.

In 1910, amidst a growing sense of Slovenian nationalism, Jakopič curated an exhibit entitled 80 Years of Art in Slovenia and chose three of Petkovšek's paintings to be shown.

While recognition was belated, Petkovšek is now generally accepted among Slovenia's most important artists of the late 19th century, and he is considered a forerunner of expressionist movement that followed his death.

Komelj also wrote that Petkovšek’s Doma (Home) is the only Slovenian painting from the 19th century which later became so influential that it received the respect of the fine arts and literary communities and was the subject of artistic homage.

Komelj even posited that the artist is sometimes thought of as the Slovenian van Gogh because his work directed the development of art in his country into the 20th century in terms of modernity and creativity.