The extensive art work of the renowned painter Pavle Paja Jovanović (1859–1957), abounded in historical, oriental, mythological, religious and portrait compositions, includes a significant part of the images of the artist's wife, Hermine (Dauber) Jovanović - Möuni (1892–1972).

Möuni has been a subject of around 30 of Jovanović’s exhibited canvases, pastels, and drawings, which are kept in Belgrade City Museum’s Paja Jovanović Legacy. Jovanović has woven his wife’s beauty into the artistic milieu, by transforming his model into a specific object d’art, worth of admiration. The representation of Möuni, as the embodiment of beauty, kept on reappearing in different thematic frameworks, from her portraits as the high-society lady, to the allegorical and mythical compositions, as well as, acts.

Paja Jovanović had sprung from the wells of the European art in the latter part of the 19th century, and became a renowned artist of world reputation, who nurtured the spirit of idealistic realism, based on his knowledge gained during his studies at the prestigious Art Academy in Vienna. In accordance with Kant's notion of natural and artistic beauty, Jovanović had strived for a highly aestheticized and embellished presentation of reality. The beauty, which had been the main theme of Jovanović's portraits, reached its climax in the visualization of the artist's favorite model, his wife Möuni.

Hermine (Dauber) Jovanović, was born in Budapest in 1892, and she met the elderly painter in 1905, while she modeled for him. Although she had been the most intimate person in the artist's life, she left scant information about herself. It is known that she married her thirty years older husband in Vienna, in 1917. In a harmonious marriage that lasted for four decades, until Jovanović’s death in 1957, a special psycho esthetic relationship developed between the artist and his wife that can only be interpreted as the Pygmalion effect. Ovid's story of Pygmalion, an artist who fell in love with his work, is analogous to Paja's apologia for Möuni, as her stunning beauty had become the artist's model, muse, and inspiration.

The exhibition represented the biographical data and interesting facts from the lives of the Serbian rulers’ wives, from the dynasties of Obrenović and Karađorđević.

The chosen wives were those of the Serbian rulers, as well as, those from Yugoslavia, from the period after the Second Serbian Uprising, and liberation from the Turks. The rulers in question were four from the dynasty Obrenović, and three from Karađorđević family. The Obrenović’s wives were: Princess Ljubica Obrenović, spouse of Prince Miloš; Princess Julija Obrenović, spouse of Prince Mihailo; Princess Natalija Obrenović who had become the Queen, spouse of King Milan; and Queen Draga, the last of the Obrenović dynasty, spouse of King Aleksandar.

Female rulers from the house of Karađorđević were Persida Karađorđević, spouse of Prince Aleksandar, and the only Yugoslav Queen, Marija, spouse of King Aleksandar Karađorđević; Princess Zorka, spouse of Petar I Karađorđević, the daughter of Montenegrin King Nikola Petrović, died in 1890, 14 years before her husband had become the King of Serbia, which is why she was not included in the exhibition.

With the help of the abundant photographic materials, as weel as, personal objects from the every-day life of those women, the visitors are introduced to their personal stories. We wanted to portray them as ordinary women, which they were, with their daily pleasures, needs, and problems. That is why their stories are about the lives they have led before the marriage, about their sometimes happy and sometimes unhappy marriages, about their children, and their role in the political life of Serbia. In short, the stories are about everything which represents the life of a wife and a mother, who is in addition a wife of the ruler.

Изложба „Сецесија – слобода стварања“ биће свечано затворена 10. јуна 2018. на Светски дан сецесије, чиме ће Клуб Лепота живота и Музеј града Београда први пут званично у Београду обележити овај дан и 50 година од отварања Музеја Јована Цвијића.

Кроз реч и слику путоваћемо кроз сецесију, време у којем је настајала, њеним специфичностима и крактеристикама у Београду и његовој архитектури. Дружићемо се уз документарни филм о Драгутину Инкиострију Медењаку, оцу дизајна и примењене уметности у Србији и аутору унутрашњег уређења дома Јована Цвијића.

Званично обележавање Светског дана сецесије у Београду започело је отварањем изложбе фотографија „Сецесија – слобода стварања“ током Ноћи музеја. У оквиру изложбе организоване су и три градске шетње, а за сам Светски дан сецесије припремљен је програм у Музеју Јована Цвијића.

Придружите нам се и у очаравајућем амбијенту Музеја уживајте у сецесији кроз причу и слику.

ЗВАНИЧНИ ПРОГРАМ ОБЕЛЕЖАВАЊА СВЕТСКОГ ДАНА СЕЦЕСИЈЕ

10. јун 2018, Музеј Јована Цвијића

11,30 – 11,55 Време сецесије, Мајда Сикошек
12,00 – 12,30 Стручно вођење кроз Музеј Јована Цвијића
12,45 – 13,10 Архитектура сецесије у Београду, Ангелина Банковић
13,15 – 13,45 Стручно вођење кроз Музеј Јована Цвијића
14,00 – 14,30 Документарни филм о Драгутину Инкиострију Медењаку, РТС
14,30 Додела награда за најбоље фотографије и затварање изложбе