Nadežda Petrović
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| Nadežda Petrović Надежда Петровић |
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 Self Portrait |
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| Born | 1873 Čačak, Kingdom of Serbia |
| Died | 1915 Valjevo, Kingdom of Serbia |
| Nationality | Serbian |
| Field | painter |
Nadežda Petrović (Serbian Cyrillic: 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 and died in Valjevo in 1915, both towns being within the Kingdom of Serbia during her lifetime. 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 1892 to 1897 she studied drawing, and in 1898 she started studying art in Münich, Germany in the private school of Anton Ažbe. Her first individual exhibit took 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 exhibited her work in Ljubljana, Paris, Zagreb, and Rome. In 1912 she opened her own teaching studio and participated in the Fourth Yugoslav Art Exhibit. The studio was sadly short-lived, as Nadežda volunteers in 1914 as a nurse in World War I. She died with many other soldiers in 1915, of typhoid fever.
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.
Her face is featured on the 200 Serbian dinar banknote. This is the first time a woman of prominence was featured on banknotes of Serbia.
