The Wounded Montenegrin
Given its success, Jovanović was granted an Austro-Hungarian government scholarship and entered into a contract with the French Gallery in London to produce a series of paintings on Balkan life.
The first is currently on display at the Gallery of Matica Srpska in Novi Sad, the second and third are in private collections, and the fourth is housed at the Museum of Yugoslav History in Belgrade.
What distinguishes the first rendering from subsequent versions is its size (it is the largest by far), detailed precision, and the artist's removal of the two figures seen lingering in the shadows in the original.
[2] Between 1877 and 1882, he attended the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, where he came under the mentorship of painting instructors Christian Griepenkerl and Leopold Müller.
Griepenkerl taught the young Jovanović the underlying structural principles of Renaissance and Baroque art, thus helping him better understand spatial problems and the arrangement of large numbers of figures, both moving and static.
It was in this context that Müller instructed Jovanović to make direct studies of Balkan life during his visits home, purposely steering him towards Orientalist painting.
[9] Orientalist works, vignettes of "exotic life" in the Middle East, North Africa and the Balkans, were quite popular with Central and Western European art collectors in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
The Herzegovina Uprising of 1875 prompted Montenegro and Serbia to declare war on the Ottoman Empire, sparking the Great Eastern Crisis of 1875–78.
It is currently on display at the Museum of Yugoslav History, and catalogued under the inventory code 59 R.[5] In line with Müller's advice, Jovanović avoided creating a sentimental work and focused instead on depicting characters and situations he observed during his time in the Balkans.
[3] The art historian Lilien Filipovitch-Robinson notes that the grouping of the figures and their interactions with one another are reminiscent of images of the lamentation over the body of Christ.
Jovanović thus directs the viewer's eye from left to right, foreground to background, through the circular pattern of the groupings as well as the diagonal lines of the peasants' swords.
In line with Müller's teachings regarding light and colour, Jovanović adds touches of bright red to give warmth and movement to the scene, making it appear as though it is unfolding before the viewer.
The brushwork is varied, ranging from the smooth broad strokes that define the solidity of the walls to quick short ones that make it appear like the figures are in motion.
Jovanović's triumph at the student exhibition and the subsequent scholarship gave him the means to travel over the summer holidays, during which he came up with a number of ideas for future paintings, such as The Fencing Lesson (Mačevanje).
[3] In 1883, Jovanović entered into a contract with Ernest Gambart's French Gallery in London to produce a series of paintings on Balkan life.
