The Conquest of Belgrade
| The Conquest of Belgrade | |
|---|---|
| Serbian: Osvajanje Beograda | |
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| Artist | Katarina Ivanović |
| Year | 1844–45 |
| Catalogue | Inventory no. 413 |
| Medium | Oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 157 cm × 188.5 cm (62 in × 74.2 in) |
| Location | National Museum of Serbia, Belgrade |
| 44°49′00″N 20°27′34″E / 44.8167°N 20.4594°E | |
The Conquest of Belgrade is an oil painting by the romanticist Katarina Ivanović, one of Serbia's first significant female painters. Painted in 1844–45, it depicts the capture of Belgrade by Serbian revolutionaries in late 1806, during the First Serbian Uprising.
Ivanović was inspired to create the painting upon reading a book titled History of the Serb People while studying at the Munich Academy. The painting was poorly received by Belgrade's art critics. The art historian Lilien Filipovitch-Robinson suggests this was due to its poor compositional and spatial conception. By the 1870s, Ivanović's works had largely been forgotten in Serbia. The Conquest of Belgrade was one of four paintings offered by Ivanović to the Gallery of Historical Portraits in 1874. The Gallery went on to form the nucleus of what was to become the National Museum of Serbia. The painting is currently in the possession of the National Museum.
According to David A. Norris, a scholar specializing in Serbian cultural history, conditions in 19th-century Serbia were unsuitable for the development of visual art. Materials were difficult to come by, studio and exhibition spaces were virtually non-existent, and there were no art patrons willing to financially support painters and purchase their finished works. In the first half of the 19th century, Serbian visual artists dedicated themselves almost exclusively to decorating the walls of churches and producing icons and other religious objects. There were some painters of Serb heritage living outside Serbia, such as Uroš Knežević and Jovan Popović, who resided in the Austrian Empire.
Another one of these artists was the romanticist Katarina Ivanović, who was born in Székesfehérvár in either 1811 or 1817, and was the first significant Serbian female painter. She left Székesfehérvár around 1835 and went to Budapest to study painting under the master Jozsef Pesky. She remained in Budapest for much of 1835. Later that year she found a patron, a baroness by the name of Czacki. In late 1835, the baroness funded Ivanović's move to Vienna. Precisely what her training entailed is unknown, but since women were not admitted into the Academy of Fine Arts at the time, it is likely that Ivanović was classified as a "special student" and tutored privately. Some scholars have suggested that she studied under Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller, though this cannot be established with any degree of certainty since most documents pertaining to her time in Vienna were destroyed in subsequent wars.
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