The France Mihelič Graphics Cabinet is situated in a room on the second floor of the castle with a richly stuccoed ceiling. The core of this study collection consists of drawings and prints from the legacy of painter France Mihelič (1907-1998).
France Mihelič was born in Virmaše near Škofja Loka. He studied in Zagreb and lived in Ptuj from the autumn of 1936, when he was appointed teacher of drawing at the Ptuj grammar school, until the beginning (in Slovenia) of the Second World War in the spring of 1941. These few years spent in Ptuj left permanent traces in his work.
The painter was enchanted by the wetlands around the villages on the Drava and the demonic figure of the kurent - a Shrovetide mask which chases away winter and heralds the spring. Mihelič's later work, the image of the Shrovetide mask would change into a universal figure wich connects life and death in a closed circle.
Mihelič reached his peak as an artist with his graphic work of the late 1950's and early 1960's. In 1992 he had donated to the town of Ptuj and to the Ptuj museum a major selection of his best prints, dating from after the Second World War. After his death, his inheritors added to this donation several prints and no lass than 244o drawings and 97 sketch-books. The material is arranged in a study collection that is open to the public.