59. Serbs around the Singer [1855.-1860.]

Anastas Jovanović (Vraca, Bulgaria 1817 - Belgrade, 1899) was a Serbian painter, graphic artist, famed as a photographer, and pioneer of Serbian modern visual arts. He was born in Vraca, in the then Ottoman Empire, today's Bulgaria, and as a young man he moved to Belgrade. His talent for art was recognized early on, and he received a scholarship from Prince Miloš Obrenović to study abroad. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna where he learned lithography. The lithography technique, revolutionary at his time, was used to create detailed portraits, illustrations, and historical scenes. His works depicted famous Serbian historical figures such as Princes Miloš and Mihailo Obrenović. As the first photographer, he photographed many celebrities and scenes from Serbia's 19th-century life. His photographs are documentary but also have an artistic character and often show members of the Obrenović family and scenes from everyday life in Belgrade. His work left an indelible mark on culture, combining technical innovation and artistic expression. The oil on tin "Serbs around the Singer" was created between 1848 and 1860. Jovanović first created a lithograph based on the template of Pavle Simić's "Serbs around the Guslar" which became extremely popular with the people. He then painted the same scene twice on tin - one copy is kept in the National Museum in Belgrade, and the other copy is the one that is in the possession of a family in Zagreb. At the center of the painting is a singer, or guslar. Guslars were respected folk singers who, while playing the gusle, sang events important to the community, often in the form of epic poems in decasyllabic versification. The figure of the guslar was later taken from the "Zagreb" painting and, under the name Filip Višnjić, was multiplied for the collection Famous Serbs of the 19th Century published by the Serbian Printing House in Zagreb. In addition to the singer, 33 people are depicted in nature and a church is visible in the background. Some of the people in the painting are Vuk Stefanović Karadžić, Prince Mihailo Obrenović, Toma Vučić-Perišić, Anka Obrenović, Anastas Jovanović (self-portrait in profile). Also identifiable in the painting are Montenegrin bishop Peter II, Petar Petrović Njegoš, Đuro Daničić, Branko Radičević, Jevrem Obrenović (the father of future king Milan) depicted while still a child. The painting is titled in Cyrillic with white paint in the middle below as "Serbs around the Singer". An version of this painting is in a private collection in Belgrade – a depiction of the guslar with the people but without a church in the background.

Dimensions

width 84.5 cm, height 60 cm

Description

oil on tin plate, titled in Cyrillic, in the middle down, in white, ''Serbs around the singer''

Research information

There are three other known versions of this work painted by Anastas Jovanović. Having become an important national painting in the 19th century, particularly after the artist also produced a lithograph version, "Serbs around the singer" was in demand, so Jovanović most likely had orders for several versions of the work. As far as we know, one version is located in the collection of the National Museum in Belgrade (inv. No. 582, 53 x 68 cm), one in the collection of the Museum of Vuk and Dositej, and another in a private collection in Zagreb (47.5 x 63.5 cm).

Dating

1855.-1860.

PROVENANCE

important private collection, Romanian Banat;

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

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