The Collection of Fine Arts and Music before 1950 includes works of painters and sculptors from the 19th century until the end of the first half of the 20th century: paintings, drawings, watercolours, prints, sculptures and reliefs – a total of 1000 items. The Collection of Anastas Jovanović, with its 1548 objects, drawings, sketches, watercolors, lithographs and photographs, including salt prints, which have a special value for the study of photography in Serbia and Europe, make a distinct unit. The collection also includes gifts and legacies of Stevan Mokranjac, Josif Marinković and Vojislav Vučković, eminent Serbian composers and musicians.

We invite you to take a look at the objects from Fine Arts and Music before 1950 collection.
In our Digital Depot, you can also see objects from other collections of the Belgrade City Museum.

Legacies

Legacy of Paja Jovanović

Explore Museum of Paja Jovanović and learn about the life and work of this great Serbian artist.

Legacy of Pava and Milan Sekulić

Explore Collection of Icons Sekulić and learn more about the icons and paintings assembled by this great art collector.

Legacy of Beta Vukanović

 Babette – Betta Vukanović (née Bachmeyer) was born in Bamberg (Bavaria, Germany) in 1872. She died in Belgrade in 1972. Betta Vukanović began to study painting in Munich in 1891, at the studio of painter Anton Ažbe; she resumed her studies in Paris in 1897. Betta Vukanović was of Austrian origin. In 1898, she moved to Belgrade, after her marriage to Rista Vukanović. She began her work as an art pedagogue at the Serbian Drawing and Painting School in 1900, to resume it at her home between 1902 and World War I. She stood side by side with the first generation of Serbian painters who introduced Impressionism in Serbian art, though she remained faithful to landscape and human face. Her concept of painting remained within the scope of the Munich school of Impressionism.

Betta Vukanović bequeathed by her will 247 paintings, pastels, watercolours and drawings to the Belgrade City Museum. Certain objects from her studio, as well as medals, decorations and acts, were added to the painter’s legacy by purchase after her death. The legacy encompasses 293 objects, including 46 objects from the painter’s studio, medals, orders and acts purchased by the Museum in order to complete the collection.

Legacy of Toma Rosandić

Toma Rosandić (Split, Croatia, 1878–1958) was educated in Rome, Florence, Venice and Vienna. In 1921, when he settled in Belgrade, Rosandić was already an experienced artist who had presented his works at various international exhibitions (Vienna, 1909; Rome, 1911; London, 1917; Paris, 1919). Since 1922, he was a professor of the Art School in Belgrade. Rosandić became a founder and the first Rector of the Belgrade Academy of Fine Art in 1937 and a full member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences in 1946. Between 1949 and 1955, he was the “Master Sculptor” of the Master’s Workshop of Toma Rosandić.

Rosandić’s artistic interests included figure, bust, relief, monumental compositions, secular or religious monuments and applied art. He made sculptures in stone, wood, copper, silver and bronze. The legacy holds Toma Rosandić’s most famous works like Ecce Homo, Youth, Self-portrait, Dying warrior, as well as his sculptures Crucifixion, Resurrection, Archangel Michael and objects of applied art (chalice, censer, stoup), made by the artist for his major architectural and sculptural project, the Petrinović mausoleum on the island of Brač, built between 1924 and 1927. Rosandić was one of the leading creative figures in the development of the Serbian 20th-century art.

Тhe sculptor Toma Rosandić bequeathed the house where he lived and worked since 1929. and his selected works to the City of Belgrade in 1955.