He is probably best known for his 1887 nude Une fleur (A Flower), which he created during his French period and which received attention in various reviews and publications during his lifetime.

While his mother was of Croatian descent, his paternal grandfather was an Italian sailor from the Genoa area who experienced a shipwreck near Cavtat.

[6] Soon after, he found employment as a sailor, traveling on the Istanbul-Liverpool-Odessa route, however, his nautical career was soon cut short due to injuries sustained during a fall on the ship.

[7] He painted many portraits, including multiple for the family of wealthy businessman William Dunphy,[8] owner of the Rancho Posa de los Ositos.

In 1877, Faggioni returned to Europe to study painting, and in this time began using the surname Bukovac, a translation of the Italian word faggio meaning beech.

From the mid-1880s to World War I, regularly visited England, where many of his pictures were sold by the London art dealers Vicars Brothers, including The White Slave in 1884.

[15] During his time in England, Bukovac gained the patronage of Samson Fox of Harrogate and Richard LeDoux of Liverpool, whose support would elevate him in British society and in the art scene.

He then began using a palette of lively and lighter colors using liberated strokes, soft rendering and the introduction of light on the painting canvas.

Having accepted modern principles, Bukovac painted casual pictures, using liberated strokes of the brush, in the pointillist technique.

[36] The museum holds a wide collection of Bukovac’s works, from portraits and paintings during his days in Paris, Zagreb, Cavtat, and Prague.

In addition to artwork, the museum contains many of Bukovac's personal objects, sketches, private letters, photographs, and a manuscript of his autobiography "My life" published in 1918.

Also, Bukovac's work can be found in the collection of Milan Jovanović Stojimirović who bequeathed a large number of paintings, sketches and artifacts to the Art Department of the Museum in Smederevo.

[37] In 2006, Bukovac's painting Une fleur (identified as Reclining Nude by the auction house) sold at Bonhams in London for £100,800.