It shows a young bride in traditional attire being prepared for her upcoming marriage by the female members of her household.
In 1935, the Yugoslav Ministry of Foreign Affairs purchased the work and bestowed it to the National Museum of Serbia, in whose possession it remains.
The jewelry that the bride is supposed to wear at her wedding is taken from an old wooden chest that can be seen in the left-hand corner and is temporarily set against a copper tray beside her.
The room in which the women have gathered is sparsely furnished, with a low ceiling, well worn carpet and plain plastered walls.
The bride wears traditional garb, with a gold necklace around her neck and delicately embroidered slippers on her feet.
The paintings were based on his own experiences in the Balkans, the Middle East and North Africa, and assured his fame among art connoisseurs in the West.
[7] Decorating of the Bride is one of Jovanović's Orientalist works, notable examples of which include The Wounded Montenegrin (1882), Fencing Lesson (1883) and Cockfight (1897).
[4] Reproductive rights to the painting were acquired by Zagreb merchant Petar Nikolić shortly after its creation, and lithographic prints were published soon thereafter.
The gold coins the bride is wearing, Filipovitch-Robinson observes, are part of the dowry, and signal "familial obligation and pride as well as contractual expectations even among villagers of modest means".
[1] Filipovitch-Robinson asserts that the heart of Jovanović's appeal as an Orientalist lay in his "positive characterization of Balkan life".
The two describe Decorating of the Bride as "artistically perfect", and argue that it played a critical role in the development of Serbian realism in the late 19th century, as did Jovanović's other Orientalist works.