Paja Jovanović
The Wounded Montenegrin (Ranjeni Crnogorac), c. 1882
Oil on canvas
114 by 186 centimetres (45 in × 73 in)
Gallery of Matica Srpska, Serbia
The original oil painting shows a wounded youth surrounded by ten peasants in a humble, single-room dwelling. The peasants wear hand-sewn shirts, rough leggings and leather shoes. They stand over a dirt floor, and in the background, a collection of eating utensils hang precariously from a makeshift shelf. The youth is cradled in the arms of a crouching, shaved-headed warrior. The two are surrounded by a pair of heavily armed men on either side of them. Nearby, a light-haired girl quietly grieves. To the right of these figures stands a grief-stricken old man. To the far right, two figures can be seen standing inauspiciously in the shadows. More on this painting
Pavle "Paja" Jovanović (16 June 1859 – 30 November 1957) was a Serbian painter who painted more than 1,100 works including: The Wounded Montenegrin (1882) (See above), Decorating of the Bride (1886) (See below) and Migration of the Serbs (1896) (See below). Paja was also the premier portraitist of Europe after 1905, he painted the Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria over 14 times, he painted royalty, major industrialists, scientists, bankers, oil barons and monopolists, including certain heirs to the Standard Oil fortune in the United States of America. He was a very sought after portraitist world-wide, this made him incredibly wealthy in his lifetime. Many European and international museums carry his works, signed under various names including: Paul Joanowitch in the National Gallery of Victoria and also two portraits in the Utah Museum of Fine Arts, Paul Joanowits, Paul Ivanovitch, Paul Joanovitch, Paul Joanovitsch, P. Joanowitsch and others.
Paul Joanowitch
The proposal
Oil on canvas
68 x 91 cm
Private collection
Paja Jovanović
Kićenje neveste, Кићење невесте/ Decorating of the Bride, c. 1885–1888
Oil on canvas
96.5 cm × 136 cm (38.0 in × 54 in)
National Museum of Serbia, Belgrade
The painting, Decorating of the Bride, is set in an impoverished 19th-century household. It shows the women of the family adorning a young bride. The jewelry that the bride is supposed to wear at her wedding is taken from an old wooden chest that can be seen in the left-hand corner and is temporarily set against a copper tray beside her. Immediately next to the chest, a little girl holds another copper tray, which also contains several items of jewelry. Two elderly women attend to the bride. To the far right, young maidens fashion a garland of fresh flowers and joyfully whisper to one another. The room in which the women have gathered is sparsely furnished, with a low ceiling, well worn carpet and plain plastered walls. The bride wears traditional garb, with a gold necklace around her neck and delicately embroidered slippers on her feet. More on this painting
Paja Jovanović
Migration of the Serbs/ Seoba Srba, c. 1896
Oil on canvas
126 by 190 centimetres (50 by 75 in)
Pančevo Museum
Migration of the Serbs is a set of four similar oil paintings by the Serbian artist Paja Jovanović that depict Serbs, led by Archbishop Arsenije III, fleeing Old Serbia during the Great Serb Migration of 1690–91. The first was commissioned in 1895 by Georgije Branković, the Patriarch of Karlovci, to be displayed at the following year's Budapest Millennium Exhibition. In the view of the Serbian clergy, it would serve to legitimize Serb claims to religious autonomy and partial self-administration in Austria-Hungary by upholding the contention that Serbs left their homeland at the behest of the Holy Roman Emperor to protect the Habsburg Monarchy's borders. More on this painting
Paja Jovanović was born in Vršac, Austrian Empire (modern-day Serbia). His father was photographer Stevan Jovanović and his mother was Ernestina née Deot, of French descent. He spent his childhood and early youth in this home town, where he saw the iconostasis of Pavel Đurković and Arsenije Teodorović in the town churches, which would influence his future works. Jovanović's mother died at a young age and his father went on to remarry. He received his first art lectures and knowledge from his teacher Vodecki.
PAUL JOANOWITCH, Serbian, 1859-1957
THE RESTING SENTINEL, Bashi-bazouks, c. 1890
Oil on panel
41.5 by 33cm., 16¼ by 13in.
Private collection
Sold for USD 180,000 in April 2005
Bashi-bazouks were irregulars in the Ottoman army and hailed from lands across the Ottoman empire, from Egypt to the Balkans. The strain on the Ottoman feudal system caused by the Empire's wide expanse required heavier reliance on irregular soldiers. They were armed and maintained by the government, but did not receive pay and did not wear uniforms or distinctive badges. Because not formally trained, they could not serve in major military operations, but were useful for other tasks such as reconnaissance and outpost duty. Here, a guard, wearing a fez and the white pleated kilt worn by the bashi-bazouks, sits outside a coffee shop in Cairo smoking an Ottoman chibouk pipe and enjoying a cup of coffee. More on this painting
PAUL JOANOWITCH, Serbian, 1859-1957
Takovo Uprising , c. 1898
Oil on canvas
190x125 cm
Private collection
The First Serbian Uprising was an uprising of Serbs in the Sanjak of Smederevo against the Ottoman Empire from 14 February 1804 to 7 October 1813. Initially a local revolt against renegade janissaries who had seized power through a coup, it evolved into a war for independence (the Serbian Revolution) after more than three centuries of Ottoman rule and short-lasting Austrian occupations. More on the Takovo Uprising
His father took him to Vienna in 1875 when he was 15, where he enrolled in the Academy of Fine Arts in 1877 in the class of professor Christian Griepenkerl. He finished the Academy in 1880, attending several important courses taught by Leopold Carl Müller, known as an "orientalist". There is no doubt that Miller's crucial lessons determined his painting preference. Noting the increased interest of Europe to the events in the Balkans, he travelled during the holidays to Albania, Montenegro, Dalmatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Serbia gathering sketches and studies of the life of the Balkan peoples.
PAUL JOANOWITCH, Serbian, 1859-1957
Return of the Squad of Montenegrins from the Battle
Oil on canvas
70 x100cm
Joanowitch, Paul (1859-1957; Serbian)
The Traitor, c. 1885-90
Oil on canvas
100.4 x 150.5 cm
National Gallery of Victoria
The dramatic subject and its staged treatment bring to mind operas of the period such as Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana (“Rustic Chivalry”), based on a story about feuding peasants by Giovanni Verga, and first performed in Rome in 1890, the same year this painting was bought for Melbourne. A reproduction of it appears in a recent internet article on Montenegro, including discussion of traditional blood feuds, codes of honour, and so on, dating back to the era of Ottoman Turkish rule over Montenegro, and only moderated in the modern era. More on this painting
Precisely these themes brought Paja Jovanović worldwide fame and popularity. In the following period, having noticed the greater interest of Europe for the Balkans, he painted mostly scenes from the life of the Serbs, Montenegrins, Herzogivinans, Aromanians and Albanians, which brought him a great reputation. Encouraged to visit the Balkan region during his hiatus, he studied the customs and folklore of the people, and in 1882 he was awarded the prize of the Academy and was given the Imperial scholarship for the composition The Wounded Montenegrin.
The public and many art critics directed their attention to the young painter, and in 1883 he signed a contract with the "French" gallery in London. He continued his travelling through Caucasus, Morocco, Egypt,] Greece, Turkey, Italy, and Spain. A great number of sketches, notes, and studies, along with the collected objects from the life of the common people, will find their place in his famous genre-compositions, such as: The Fencing Lesson (See below), Decorating of the Bride (See above), and Cockfighting (See above). Some of Jovanović's most remarkable praises were gathered at two of his greatest exhibitions: Millennium exhibition in Budapest in 1896, where he prepared Migration of the Serbs for entry, but the Vršac triptych was sent instead, and the World Exhibition in Paris in 1900, for which he had painted a great historical composition The Proclamation of Dušan's Law Codex.
Paja Jovanović
Cockfighting
Oil on canvas
I have no further description, at this time
Paja Jovanović
Vršac triptych, c. 1895
Oil on canvas
1 × 200 by 200 centimetres (79 by 79 in) and 2 × 200 by 100 centimetres (79 by 39 in)
Vršac City Museum
Sowing and Harvesting and Market, popularly referred to as the Vršac triptych, is a three-panel oil painting by the Serbian realist Paja Jovanović. Painted around 1895, it shows the everyday interactions of the inhabitants of Vršac, a multi-ethnic and multi-religious town in the Banat region of Austria-Hungary of which Jovanović was a native. The painting was commissioned by the Vršac city council in 1895 for the following year's Budapest Millennium Exhibition. More on this painting
Paja Jovanović
Čas mačevanja/ The Fencing Lesson, c. 1883
Sketch, pencil
Dimensions: height 90.5, width 59 cm
Belgrade City Museum
According to Paja Jovanović's autobiography, the inspiration for this painting arose from an event during his summer holidays in 1882, which were spent at home in Vršac. A neighbour, Mita, came to visit the Jovanović family outfitted in full military garb. Paja's brother Aleksandar – Šandor pulled out Mita's yatagan (sword) and began to brandish with it. In the moment when Mita caringly leaned towards the boy to take the weapon from his hands, an idea for a new painting sparkled in Paja's head. "They formed such a sublime group, in sculptural terms, that I enthusiastically grabbed my palette and began to capture on canvas what I saw before me." More on this painting
Paja Jovanović
Čas mačevanja/ The Fencing Lesson, c.1884
Oil on canvas
I have no further description, at this time
Paja Jovanović
The Sword Dance, c. 1890
Oil on canvas
Private collection
Paul Joanowitch
Portrait of Queen Marija Karadjordjevic of Yugoslavia
Oil on canvas
79 x 63 cm
Private collection
Maria of Romania or Marie of Yugoslavia (6 January 1900 – 22 June 1961), known in Serbo-Croatian as Marija Karađorđević, was Queen of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, later Queen of Yugoslavia, as the wife of King Alexander from 1922 until his assassination in 1934. She was the mother of Peter II, the last Yugoslav monarch. Her citizenship was revoked and her property confiscated by the Yugoslav Communist regime in 1947, but she was "rehabilitated" in 2014. More on Queen Marija Karadjordjevic
Paja Jovanović
English painter Simington, c. 1895
oil on canvas
76x99 cm
I have no further description, at this time
Nicholas Simington was an artist for over forty years. His work has been exhibited at The Serpentine Gallery, London, and in one-man shows in numerous galleries across the UK. It is held in private collections in Canada, Australia, America, Italy and Britain.
Paja Jovanović
Portrait of Mihajlo Pupin
Oil on canvasI have no further description, at this time
Mihajlo Idvorski Pupin (9 October 1858 – 12 March 1935), also known as Michael Pupin, was a Serbian physicist, physical chemist and philanthropist based in the United States.
Pupin is best known for his numerous patents, including a means of greatly extending the range of long-distance telephone communication. More on Mihajlo Pupin
Paul Joanowitch
PORTRET POLUOBNAŽENE MLADE ŽENE/ PORTRAIT OF A SEMI-NAKED YOUNG WOMAN , ca 1910
Oil on canvas
81x64,5 cm
Private collection
Some of the most famous include those of Painter Simington, Mihajlo Pupin, Đorđe Jovanović, and others. He painted the portraits of his longtime model and wife, Hermina Dauber Jovanović Mouni with special care.
Möuni has been a subject of around 30 of Jovanović’s exhibited canvases, pastels, and drawings, which are kept in Belgrade City Museum’s Paja Jovanović Legacy. Jovanović has woven his wife’s beauty into the artistic milieu, by transforming his model into a specific object d’art, worth of admiration. The representation of Möuni, as the embodiment of beauty, kept on reappearing in different thematic frameworks, from her portraits as the high-society lady, to the allegorical and mythical compositions, as well as, acts.
Paul Joanowitch
Hermine (Mouni) Joanovits, Born Dauber, Wife of the Artist
Oil on canvas
130 x 89 cm.
Private collection
Paja Jovanović
Nude on a Red Cloak, c. 1918-1920
Oil on canvas
Museum of the City of Belgrade
A Nude on the Red Cloak is part of a monumental triptych which consists of two nudes and one portrait of the painter's wife Hermina Dauber Jovanović Mouni. Mouni is presented in an armchair from the painter's Viennese studio, on a bright red drapery. There is a metal tray with glass bottles and a lemon on the right side of the model. This nude is considered the "most colorful" in the work of Paja Jovanović. It arrived at the Belgrade City Museum in 1972, on the will of the artist's wife Mouni, when it became available to the public for the first time. More on this painting
Paja Jovanović
The Land Thirsty for Rain, c. 1900-1906
Oil on canvas
Museum of the City of Belgrade
Hermina Dauber Jovanović Mouni, born in Budapest in 1892, met a contemporary painter in 1905, when she became his model. Although the most intimate person in the artist's life, she left scant information about herself. It is known that she married her husband of 33 years in Vienna in 1917. In a harmonious marriage, four decades long, which lasted until the death of Paja Jovanović in 1957, a special psycho-aesthetic relationship developed between the artist and his wife, which can be interpreted through the vision of the Pygmalion effect. Ovid's story of Pygmalion, an artist who fell in love with his work, is analogous to Paja's apology to Muni, who, with her enchanting appearance, was the artist's model, muse and inspiration. More on this painting
He painted the iconostasis in the church of St Nicholas in Dolovo and Orthodox cathedral in Novi Sad, which was painted without commission. He spent most of his time in his atelier in Vienna, where he settled, and occasionally travelled to Belgrade. In 1940 he was made honorary citizen of Vršac, and in 1949 he was given the Order zasluga za narod (Merit for People) of the first category. He lived quietly and lonely, after his wife's early death, in Vienna until his own death in 1957. According to his will, the urn with his ashes was to be moved to Belgrade and where "The Legacy of Paja Jovanović" was opened in 1970, as well in Vršac. Later, in the building of the Old Pharmacy on the Stairs, in 1977 the permanent commemorative exhibition of Paja Jovanović was opened. The works of Paja Jovanović have been kept in the Town Museum of Vršac, along with his well-known painting Vršac triptych. Most of his works and personal belongings can be found in the Belgrade City Museum.
He is included in The 100 most prominent Serbs list. Jovanović received a number of orders and decorations both in Serbia and abroad. A number of schools in Serbia are named after him. More on Pavle "Paja" Jovanović
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