Kosta Josipović (2 May 1887,

Belgrade Belgrade is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Serbia, largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers and at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin, Pannonian Plain and the Balkan Peninsula. T ...

Kingdom of Serbia The Kingdom of Serbia was a country located in the Balkans which was created when the ruler of the Principality of Serbia, Milan I of Serbia, Milan I, was proclaimed king in 1882. Since 1817, the Principality was ruled by the Obrenović dynast ...

– 7 August 1919,

Skopje Skopje ( , ; ; , sq-definite, Shkupi) is the capital and largest city of North Macedonia. It lies in the northern part of the country, in the Skopje Basin, Skopje Valley along the Vardar River, and is the political, economic, and cultura ...

Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes The Kingdom of Yugoslavia was a country in Southeast and Central Europe that existed from 1918 until 1941. From 1918 to 1929, it was officially called the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, but the term "Yugoslavia" () has been its colloq ...

) was a Serbian

Impressionist Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by visible brush strokes, open Composition (visual arts), composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage ...

painter.

Biography

Kosta was born in 1887 in Belgrade, in a clerical family. As a talented person, he studied painting with

Rista Vukanović Rista Vukanović also Risto Vukanović (Bugovina near Trebinje, Bosnia and Hercegovina, then under the Habsburg monarchy, 16 April 1873 – Paris, France, 16 January 1918) was a Serbian painter, the husband of painter Beta Vukanović who together ...

in the first generation of students at the School of Arts and Crafts. For that school - a newly constructed building, he later made decorative elements. He continued his education at the age of 25, in Germany, with a state scholarship, where (since May 1912) he was in Munich

Academy of Fine Arts The following is a list of notable art schools. Accredited non-profit art and design colleges * Adelaide Central School of Art * Alberta College of Art and Design * Art Academy of Cincinnati * Art Center College of Design * The Art Institute ...

in the class of professor Hugo von Habermann. At that time he befriended

Živorad Nastasijević Živorad Nastasijević (Gornji Milanovac, 1893 - Belgrade, 1966) was a Serbian painter and war artist. Biography He was born into a family where his brothers included artists, Momcilo Nastasijević, Slavomir Nastasijević, and Svetomir Nastasijev ...

, Mihailo Milovanović and other Serbian art students who left Germany either in 1912 or 1914 for Serbia to join the military at the outbreak of the

First Balkan War The First Balkan War lasted from October 1912 to May 1913 and involved actions of the Balkan League (the Kingdoms of Kingdom of Bulgaria, Bulgaria, Kingdom of Serbia, Serbia, Kingdom of Greece, Greece and Kingdom of Montenegro, Montenegro) agai ...

Second Balkan War The Second Balkan War was a conflict that broke out when Kingdom of Bulgaria, Bulgaria, dissatisfied with its share of the spoils of the First Balkan War, attacked its former allies, Kingdom of Serbia, Serbia and Kingdom of Greece, Greece, on 1 ...

and the

Great War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

. Before and after returning from Munich, he lived and worked in Belgrade. He taught drawing - graphic sketching in Belgrade schools in 1911. In 1911, Dragutin Inkiostri Medenjak took him to

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

, to

Turin Turin ( , ; ; , then ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The city is main ...

and later to the

International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts The International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts () was a specialized exhibition held in Paris, France, from April 29 (the day after it was inaugurated in a private ceremony by the President of France) to November 8, 1925 (O ...

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

. Wounded in the

Balkan Wars The Balkan Wars were two conflicts that took place in the Balkans, Balkan states in 1912 and 1913. In the First Balkan War, the four Balkan states of Kingdom of Greece (Glücksburg), Greece, Kingdom of Serbia, Serbia, Kingdom of Montenegro, M ...

and

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, he was treated in

Bizerte Bizerte (, ) is the capital and largest city of Bizerte Governorate in northern Tunisia. It is the List of northernmost items, northernmost city in Africa, located north of the capital Tunis. It is also known as the last town to remain under Fr ...

and

Nice Nice ( ; ) is a city in and the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative city limits, with a population of nearly one million Salonika front The Macedonian front, also known as the Salonica front (after Thessaloniki), was a military theatre of World War I formed as a result of an attempt by the Allied Powers to aid Serbia, in the autumn of 1915, against the combined attack of Germa ...

, where he was severely wounded. He died in a Skopje military hospital in 1919. As an impressionist, Kosta Josipović called ''Sos'' is known for his work "Sailboats on the Water", which he modelled on

Claude Monet Oscar-Claude Monet (, ; ; 14 November 1840 – 5 December 1926) was a French painter and founder of Impressionism painting who is seen as a key precursor to modernism, especially in his attempts to paint nature as he perceived it. During his ...

. In 1909, he painted a portrait of the girl Jela Kovačević in pastel, and in 1910, "Portrait of Mrs. Živković". He painted icons (16) on the iconostasis of the

Serbian Orthodox Church The Serbian Orthodox Church ( sr-Cyrl-Latn, Српска православна црква, Srpska pravoslavna crkva) is one of the autocephalous (ecclesiastically independent) Eastern Orthodoxy, Eastern Orthodox Eastern Orthodox Church#Constit ...

in the village of Ribnica, near

Mionica Mionica ( sr-cyr, Мионица, ) is a town and municipality located in the Kolubara District of western Serbia. , the population of the town is 1,590, while population of the municipality is 12,061 inhabitants. Geography The township of Mionic ...

. Known for the painting "Before Bitola" inspired by a historical event from the First Balkan War. Unlike the epic painting of

Paja Jovanović Pavle "Paja" Jovanović ( sr-cyr, Павле "Паја" Јовановић; ; 16 June 1859 – 30 November 1957) was a Serbian realist painter who painted more than 1,100 works including: '' The Wounded Montenegrin'' (1882), '' Decorating of the ...

and other contemporaries, Josipović paints a historical moment in a completely new and unusual way without a tendency towards the glorification of his army. There is no icy frame in which the actors are caught in the heat of battle at the most dramatic moment. Josipović figures paintings without portrait characteristics and without striving for characterization. The figures are so organized and painted that they create a very convincing illusion of movement. A year later,

Aleksa Šantić Aleksa Šantić ( sr-Cyrl, Алекса Шантић, (); 27 May 1868 – 2 February 1924) was a Herzegovinian Serb poet and writer from Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Šantić wrote about the urban culture of his hometown Mostar and Herzegovi ...

wrote a song with the same name, perhaps inspired by this ingenious work by Kosta Josipović. His wartime historical composition "Crossing Albania" was unfortunately lost."Зборник Народног музеја", Београд 5/1967.

Sources

* Jovan Sekulić: "Munich School and Serbian Painting", Belgrade 2002. * "State Calendar of the Kingdom of Serbia" for 1911, Belgrade 1911. * Stanislav Živković: "Serbian Impressionists", Belgrade 1994. * Stanislav Živković: "

Kosta Miličević Kosta Miličević ( sr-Cyrl, Коста Миличевић; 3 June 1877 – 12 February 1920) was a Serbian Impressionism, Impressionist painter, known mostly for his landscapes. Biography Kosta Miličević was born to a clerical family, with a ...

", Novi Sad 1970. * "Proceedings of the

National Museum in Belgrade The National Museum of Serbia () is the largest and oldest museum in Belgrade, Serbia. It is located in the central zone of Belgrade on a square plot between the Republic Square (Belgrade), Republic Square, formerly Theatre Square, and three stree ...

5/1967.

Literature

* Živković, С. (2009): The Indestructible World of Spiritual Beauty. Interprint.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Josipović, Kosta 1887 births 1919 deaths Artists from Belgrade Serbian Impressionist painters Academy of Fine Arts, Munich alumni Serbian soldiers Serbian military personnel of the Balkan Wars Serbian military personnel of World War I

Biography

Sources

See also

Literature

References