Stevan Todorović

Stevan Todorović ( sr-cyr, Стеван Тодоровић; Novi Sad, 1832–Belgrade, 1925) was a Serbian painter and the founder of modern fencing and Sokol movement in Yugoslavia.

Biography

Born in Novi Sad, Todorović moved in 1839 to Szeged, where he completed elementary school and five grades of high school. In 1850 he relocated to Vienna to study art. After several years in Vienna, he settled in Belgrade, where he was engaged with a gymnastic and fencing club, as well as theatre. He also ran a successful drawing school.

In 1864, he married painter Poleksija Todorović (née Ban), who was his wife for over sixty years. They worked together on various projects in churches across Serbia, including iconostases in Church of the Nativity of the Virgin in Bogatić and in the Holy Trinity Church in Negotin.

He was a correspondent and war painter for a number of domestic and foreign newspapers during the Serbian-Turkish Wars (1876–1878), and became known as the founder of war painting in Serbia. From the Balkan Wars, and later World War I, this was no longer an individual occupation but a task subject to state and military regulations.

Todorović was close to the Obrenović royal house. He made portraits of almost all members of the royal family, including Natalie of Serbia; his portrait of her helped in making her the "Serbian Mona Lisa".

He exhibited his artworks as a part of Kingdom of Serbia's pavilion at International Exhibition of Art of 1911.

In the course of his long life, he created art under various visual poetics, chiefly Romanticism to Academicism. His best works were carried out in the Romantic spirit. His extensive artistic legacy consists of portraits, religious and historical paintings, landscapes, and numerous studies and drawings. Much of his artistic activities is related to Serbia and Belgrade in which cultural and social life he actively participated. He opened the first art school in Belgrade where youngsters learned drawing, singing, fencing, and gymnastic exercises. Owing to a long life and extraordinary tenacity and hard work, he managed to create a rich painting opus.

Also, Stevan Todorović's work can be found in the collection of Milan Jovanović Stojimirović who bequeathed a large number of paintings, sketches, and artifacts to the Art Department of the Museum in Smederevo.

Gallery

File:Hajduk Veljko, Stevan Todorović.jpg, ''Death of Hajduk-Veljko'', 1850
File:Stevan Todorović - Portrait of Milan Đ. Milićević, 1866.jpg, Portrait of Milan Đ. Milićević, National Museum of Serbia, 1866
File:Nićifor Dučić, 1874.jpg, Portrait of Nićifor Dučić, 1874
File:KraljMilanObrenovic.jpg, Portrait of king Milan Obrenović, 1883
File:Reina Natalija de Serbia.jpg, ''Reina Natalija de Serbia'', 1883
File:Stefan Todorovic Polekonia Tolorovitschka.jpg, ''Polekonia Tolorovitschka'', 1889
File:Sabor u Prizrenu pred Kosovsku bitku.jpg, ''Sabor u Prizrenu'', 1899
File:Stevan Todorović, Postriženje Svetog Save (Sveti Sava odriče povratak svome kraljevskom domu), 1907.jpg, ''Postriženje Svetog Save'', 1907
File:KornelijeStankovic NM.jpg, Portrait of composer Kornelije Stanković, 1920
File:Stevan Todorović, Portrait of Prince Mihailo Obrenović, Princess Ljubica's Residence.jpg, Portrait of Mihailo Obrenović

See also

* List of painters from Serbia
* Serbian art
* Nikola Aleksić
* Đura Jakšić
* Novak Radonić
* Katarina Ivanović

References

Sources

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External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Todorovic, Steva
1832 births
1925 deaths
19th-century Serbian people
20th-century Serbian people
Serbian painters
Romantic painters
Artists from Novi Sad
Artists from Belgrade
Serbian male fencers
19th-century Serbian painters