He studied in Paris and worked there for fifteen years. Coming 1893rd in Zagreb, became the central figure of artistic and cultural life of the city. Brings together young artists and writers, encourages the construction of studios, Art Pavilion, the Company established Croatian artists and seeks to promote the Croatian art in the world.

Since 1903. death lives in Prague, where he was a professor at the Art Academy. Bukovac in Zagreb action marks the beginning of a new period in Croatian painting. Then for large decorative compositions: "Dubravka", "Gundulićev dream" on the curtain at the Croatian National Theatre.

In the past, the Prague stage pictures and experimenting in the new poentilističkoj manner. Bukovac's founder and chief representative of the modern Croatian and is among the most prolific of our painters. The most prominent Croatian painter at the turn of the 19th to 20 century.