Konstantin Danil

Konstantin Danil (Serbian Cyrillic: Константин Данил, Romanian: Constantin Dănilă, 1798-1873) was a renowned Serbian painter of the 19th century. He is most famous for his portraits.

Constantine Danil Grigorović, better known as Konstantin Danil, was born in Lugoj in a family with Serbian and Romanian roots, in 1798. Danil Grigorović, Konstantin's father, was a Russian officer under the command of Alexander Suvarov who decided to settle in the city in Timis County in Banat (now western Romania) situated on the banks of the Timiș River, then part of the Austrian Military Frontier.

Konstantin Danil's parents intended him for a literary or learned career, however, he very early showed an interest in art, and at the age of thirteen he left Lugoj for Temișvar, where he executed a drawing which procured his admission to the school of Arsenije "Arsa" Teodorović (1767-1826). Teodorović was one of the most significant Serbian painters in the 18th- and 19th- century. Danil's master graduated at the Academy of Arts in Vienna, and afterwards he lived in Temișvar and Novi Sad. He painted portraits and altarpieces, and some historical compositions. His style belonged to a progressive, classicistic stream of Serbian art. Teodorović was a principal of a drawing school, and through it he influenced a whole new generation of younger artists, including a few that rivaled him. One of them was Konstantin Danil. Here Konstantin Danil studied for several years, and produced, among other works, a figure of Saint Sava which attracted much attention. The Serbian master gave every encouragement to the young Konstantin Danil for the next four years. Artists had then already started to call Konstantin Danil Grigorović, who was perpetually sketching all sorts of objects in art and in nature, by his father's name Danil. Konstantin Danil, who had by this time acquired so much mastery over the painting technique that his performances were barely distinguishable from Teodorović's own. He now began to explore other avenues to improve his skills.

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