Croatian painter Slava Raškaj is the most prominent watercolorist. She was born as deaf-mute, schooled in a School for the deaf in Vienna (1885-93), and later returned to Ozalj. From 1895 she lived in Zagreb and stayed in Institution for the deaf. The very next year she a student of Bela Čikoš-Sesija, a well known Croatian painter. First signs of her mental illness became visible in 1901, and by 1902 she was institutionalized in Stenjevac mental hospital where she stayed until her death in 1906.

In her early work she mostly painted under the influence of her teacher - still nature in darker colors, and around 1898 there are more visible influences of secession. Pastels and aquarells of lyrical landscapes of Ozalj and its surroundings, occasional human figure are basic motifs of her most fertile period between 1898 and 1901. Her aquarells are bright and luiminiscent in color with an all around magical feel, accomplished by intricate touches of light. Her opus belongs to the period of Croatian modernity, namely its impressionist current. Slava Raškaj with her aquarells represents the highest level of Croatian aquarelle painting in the end of 19th and the beginning of 20th century.