He can be considered among the first 19th-century European-trained painters who decided to make a living by traveling for forty-year across all continents, leaving portraits behind him that capture the best of European Romanticism of the time.
His works can be found in museums and private collections in Serbia,[1][2] Romania, England, India, China, the United States of America, Hawaii, Chile, Peru, Canada, Australia, Egypt, and Italy.
Police chief Frederick Standish investigated suicide and found no foul play, though that incident didn't stop the sensational press from spreading slanderous rumours overseas that would haunt Petrović's reputation for years to come, eventually contributing to his marginalization altogether.
[4] In the beginning, Petrović was not well-known in his country of origin until Serbian art historian Miodrag Marković began in 2015 researching his life and work.
[7] Sava and his wife Maria Sibeslov came originally from a nearby village of Izvin and settled in 1814 in Timișoara's suburb Fabrika, where the majority of the population was Serbian at the time.