The world’s first postal card was issued in 1869 by Austria-Hungary, then the homeland of Slovenian people. Postal cards soon caught on also in the Slovenian lands and  by the end of the century picture postcards appeared as well.  Slovenian painter Maksim Gaspari (1883–1980) created them  throughout his life. For twenty years, he served as a draughtsman  and restorer at the Slovene Ethnographic Museum (SEM), where he was in regular contact with ethnographic objects, something that left a profound mark on his body of work, including picture postcards.

In 2023, SEM acquired a unique collection of more than 500 Gaspari’s postcards, which collector Marjan Marinšek had built  over several decades. This exhibition offers enlargements of selected postcards from this collection.

The oldest known postcard dates back to 1903. The notable Army in Pictures series (1914–1918) was followed by the Declaration and Plebiscite postcards published in support of the May Declaration and the annexation of Carinthia to Yugoslavia (1920). Gaspari is most remembered for his postcards with Christmas/New Year and Easter motifs. Other popular motifs include customs associated with life’s milestones (christening, wedding), typified and idealized scenes of everyday life, and Slovene Mary. The common thread running through his picture postcards are stereotyped national costumes.

You are kindly invited to visit us at the Slovene Ethnographic Museum and see the grand exhibition Maksim Gaspari: Shaping Images of the Nation, and the exhibition Maksim Gaspari’s postcards.