Menci Clement Crnčić (Bruck an der Mur, Austria, 3 April 1865 – Zagreb, 9 November 1930) was a Croatian painter, printmaker, teacher and museum director.

He was the first artist in the Croatian graphic tradition to abandon a strictly linear style and use tonal variation to create contrasting areas of light and shade.

At this time Crnčić exhibited in Zagreb and other European cities (Budapest, St. Petersburg, and Paris) with other artists of the Croatian Art Society (Društvo hrvatskih umjetnika).

At his first solo exhibition in 1900–1901 in the Art Pavilion, he showed 39 oil paintings and prints, including several seascapes which remained a favourite theme throughout his life.

His work raised interest in the art circles of Zagreb owing to his rich, bright colours and the high quality of his graphics.

[3] Over the next few years, Crnčić spent time travelling around Croatia, drawing and painting from nature, and exhibiting his work in Zagreb, Opatija and Vienna.

Following that show, Crnčić received a grant from the Emperor of 2,000 kruna to create a series of etchings of the Adriatic coast in Primorje and Dalmatia.

In the spring 1903 he spent time in Opatija, creating landscapes of Primorje and the Bay of Kvarner characterized by thick impasto brush strokes.

These introduced a change in his style of painting - instead of dense impasto he began to use thin layers of colour with fine brush movements.

[5] By his first solo exhibition in 1900–1901 in the Art Pavilion in Zagreb, his painting style had changed, with brighter colours appearing, and themes of landscapes and seascapes which were to remain a favourite subject throughout his life.

[3] He depicted it in a variety of different moods – in lively colors with foaming white waves, in somber fog, in the glow of the setting sun and under blue skies.

The same realism is present in his larger compositions, such as his coloured etchings of old Zagreb, which are freer in the drawing and painting, and evoke an impression accentuated by color.