Nadežda Petrović

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Nadežda Petrović Надежда Петровић
Self Portrait
Born	1873 Čačak, Kingdom of Serbia
Died	1915 Valjevo, Kingdom of Serbia
Nationality	Serbian
Field	painter

Nadežda Petrović (Надежда Петровић) is considered the most important Serbian female painter from the late 19th and early 20th century. She was born in 1873 in Čačak, Kingdom of Serbia and died in 1915 in Valjevo, Serbia. She was also known as Serbia's most famous Fauvist.

[edit] Biography

In 1884 her family moved from Čačak to Belgrade, where Nadežda finishes the Women's school of higher education in 1891. From 1982 to 1897 she studies drawing, and in 1898 she starts studying art in Münich, Germany. Her first individual exhibit takes place in 1900 in Belgrade. Her contributions were essential in organizing the First Yugoslav Art Exhibit, and the First Yugoslav Art Colony. Between 1901 and 1912 she has exhibited her work in Ljubljana, Paris, Zagreb, and Rome. In 1912 she opens her own teaching studio and participates in the Fourth Yugoslav Art Exhibit. The studio is sadly short-lived, as Nadežda volunteers in 1914 as a nurse in World War I. She dies with many other soldiers in 1915, of typhoid fever.

Nadežda Petrović on 200 Serbian dinars banknote

She was one of the few Serbian artists who worked largely in Serbia but whose work was at the level of world art of the time. She was in step with European expressionism and started to intorduce abstractions in her work. An example of her work is given below in External Links. Her works are dominated by broad surfaces, and her favorite colors: warm red and the complementing green. Her work is often separated into eras according to her places of residence: the Münich period (1898-1903), the Serbian period (1903-1910), the Parisian period (1910-1912), and the War period (1912-1915). Her strength and courage in life is evident in many of her works.