The Wounded Montenegrin

The Wounded Montenegrin (Serbian: Рањени Црногорац, Ranjeni Crnogorac) is the title of four nearly identical compositions by the artist Paja Jovanović depicting a wounded youth surrounded by peasants in traditional clothing, likely during the Montenegrin–Ottoman War of 1876–78.

The first rendering garnered praise from critics, and won the first-place prize at the Academy of Fine Arts' annual art exhibition in Vienna in 1882. Given its success, Jovanović was granted an Austro-Hungarian government scholarship and entered into a contract with the French Gallery in London to produce a series of paintings on Balkan life. Art historians consider The Wounded Montenegrin one of Jovanović's best Orientalist works. Jovanović went on to complete three further versions of the composition in the ensuing decades, three of which are oil paintings. The first is currently on display at the Matica Srpska gallery in Novi Sad, the second and third are in private collections, and the fourth is housed at the Museum of Yugoslav History in Belgrade.

The original oil painting measures 114 by 189 centimetres (45 in × 74 in). It shows a muscular, 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, himself surrounded by a number of figures in folk attire. To the far right, two figures can be seen standing inauspiciously in the shadows. The artist's signature, rendered as Joanowits P., can be found at the bottom right.

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