Orientalism | Paul Joanowits (1859 - 1957)

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Paja Jovanović | Paul Joanowits (1859 - 1957) [1]

Paul Joanowits
1859 - 1957
SERBIAN
BASHI-BAZOUKS BEFORE A GATEWAY
signed P. Joanowits lower right
oil on panel
46 by 35cm., 18 by 14¾in.
Painted circa 1887-88.

Bashi-bazouks were irregulars in the Ottoman army and hailed from lands across the Ottoman empire, from Egypt to the Balkans. The strain on the Ottoman feudal system caused by the Empire's wide expanse required heavier reliance on irregular soldiers. They were armed and maintained by the government, but did not receive pay and did not wear uniforms or distinctive badges. Because not formally trained, they could not serve in major military operations, but were useful for other tasks such as reconnaissance and outpost duty.

The two soldiers, in all their regalia, converse in an Egyptian setting, the gate topped by Mamluk carvings and flanked by East African 'Grandees' chairs', amalgams of Mamluk, Portuguese, and Indian influence. Both men are armed with Ottoman flintlock rifles from Algeria, and the standing guard smokes an Ottoman chibouk pipe with a tophane bowl. On the left, a seventeenth-century Ottoman Tulip-period Tombak ewer rests on the arm of one of the chairs. 

A market scene, signed Paul Joanovitsch, oil on panel, 13.5 x 23 cm

Paul Joanovitch was born in Vršac, formerly southern Hungary and today Serbia.Joanovitch studied at the Vienna Academy from 1876 to 1883 under Karl Leopold Müller. His patrons included King Alexander of Serbia. From there he sent his first painting to the art society in Budapest, earning him a Hungarian state scholarship. Like his teacher, he painted oriental images, in Vienna and later in Munich. During the late 19th century he painted scenes of the Serbian uprising for King Alexander of Serbia. Back in Vienna, his main interest lay in painting portraits, amongst which is a picture of Emperor Francis Joseph I. Joanovitch exhibited in Vienna, Munich and Berlin and today his works can be found in museums in Belgrade, Budapest, London, Munich and Vienna. (Cf. Thieme-Becker, Leipzig 1926, Vol.XIX, p. 21.)His meticulously observed Montenegrin and Albanian subjects, particularly of warriors and bashi-bazouks, met with international acclaim, prized by English and American collectors alike.



Paul Joanowits (1859 - 1957)
”Sword Fighting”
Etching / Engraving
31 1/4 x 24 1/4 inches (frame)
23 x 16 inches (print)
Signed: “P. Joanowits” (low right)
Circa 1883

The Wounded Montenegrin (1882)

The Sword Dance or Fencing Game (1890)

Migration of the Serbs (1896), Pančevo Museum.

[1] His father was photographer Stevan Jovanović and his mother was Ernestina née Deot, of French descent. He spent his childhood and early youth in this home town, where he saw the iconostasis of Pavel Đurković and Arsenije Teodorović in the town churches,[5which would influence his future works. Jovanović's mother died at a young age and his father went on to remarry. He received his first art lectures and knowledge from his teacher Vodecki. His father took him to Vienna in 1875 when he was 15, where he enrolled in the Academy of Fine Arts in 1877 in the class of professor Christian Griepenkerl. He finished the Academy in 1880, attending several important courses taught by Leopold Carl Müller[*], known as an "orientalist". There is no doubt that Miller's crucial lessons determined his painting preference. Noting the increased interest of Europe to the events in the Balkans, he traveled during the holidays to Albania, Montenegro, Dalmatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Serbia gathering sketches and studies of the life of the Balkan peoples. Precisely these themes brought Paja Jovanović worldwide fame and popularity. In the following period, having noticed greater interest of Europe for the Balkans, he painted mostly scenes from the life of the Serbs, Montenegrins, Herzogivinans, Aromanians and Albanians, which brought him great reputation. Encouraged to visit the Balkan region during his hiatus, he studied the customs and folklore of the people, and in 1882 he was awarded the prize of the Academy and was given the Imperial scholarship for the composition The Wounded Montenegrin.

The public and many art critics directed their attention to the young painter, and in 1883 he signed a contract with the "French" gallery in London.[10] He continued his travelling through Caucasus, Morocco, Egypt, Greece, Turkey, Italy, and Spain. A great number of sketches, notes, and studies, along with the collected objects from the life of the common people, will find their place in his famous genre-compositions, such as: Fencing, Decorating of the Bride, and Cockfighting. Some of Jovanović's most remarkable praises were gathered at two of his greatest exhibitions: Millennium exhibition in Budapest in 1896, where he prepared Migration of the Serbs for entry, but the Vršac triptych was sent instead, and the World Exhibition in Paris in 1900, for which he had painted a great historical composition The Proclamation of Dušan's Law Codex.

As of 1888 he was proclaimed a member of the Serbian Royal Academy. He was tasked with painting monumental, historical compositions. After 1905 he devoted himself exclusively to painting the portraits in the style of academic realism for the rich clientele, and he became very famous thanks to them. Some of the most famous include those of Painter Simington, Mihajlo Pupin, Đorđe Jovanović, and others. He painted the portraits of his longtime model and wife, Muni with special care.


He painted the iconostasis in the church of St Nicholas in Dolovo and Orthodox cathedral in Novi Sad,[15] which was painted without commission. He spent most of his time in his atelier in Vienna, where he settled, and occasionally travelled to Belgrade. In 1940 he was made honorary citizen of Vršac, and in 1949 he was given the Order zasluga za narod (Merit for People) of the first category. He lived quietly and lonely, after his wife's early death, in Vienna until his own death in 1957. According to his will, the urn with his ashes was to be moved to Belgrade and where “The Legacy of Paja Jovanović” was opened in 1970, as well in Vršac. Later, in the building of the Old Pharmacy on the Stairs, in 1977 the permanent commemorative exhibition of Paja Jovanović was opened. The works of Paja Jovanović have been kept in the Town Museum of Vršac, along with his well-know painting Vršac triptych. Most of his works and personal belongings can be found in the Belgrade City Museum.


[*] Leopold Carl Müller (9 December 1834 – 4 August 1892) was an Austrian genre painter noted for his Orientalist works. Born in Dresden to Austrian parents, he was a pupil of Karl von Blaas and of Christian Ruben at the Academy in Vienna. Obliged to support his family after his father's death, he worked eight years as an illustrator for the Vienna Figaro. Continuing his studies subsequently, he visited repeatedly Italy and Egypt, and made his name favorably known through a series of scenes from popular life in Italy and Hungary. 

In the late 1860s, he visited Paris, where he was inspired by the work of Eugene Fromentin and subsequently turned his attention to the Orientalist genre.  In 1877 Müller took a position as professor at the Vienna Academy and later as a rector during 1890-91.  Among his pupils were several orientalists such as Ludwig Deutsch, Paul Joanowitch, Jean Discart and Charles Wilda.

His sisters were the painters Marie Müller (1847-1935) and Berta Müller (1848–1925), both well known in Austria for their portrait paintings. The third sister, Josefine, married the Austrian portrait painter Eduard Swoboda (1814-1902), he was the father of the painter Rudolf Swoboda and the portrait painter Josefine Swoboda.

He travelled to Egypt many times throughout his life, often staying there for six months at a time. In 1879, on his fifth visit, he travelled with his nephew and student, Rudolf Swoboda. ^[6]

He died, aged 57, in Weidlingau, now part of Vienna and is buried at "The Zentralfriedhof" in Vienna.

LITERATURE
Nikola Kusovac, Dejan Medaković et al., Paja Jovanović, Belgrade, 2009, p. 232, illustrated
Nikola Kusovac, Paja Jovanović, Belgrade,, 2010, p. 125, illustrated
Petar Petrović, Paja Jovanović - sistemski katalog dela [catalogue raisonné], Belgrade, 2012, p. 24, no. 21, catalogued & illustrated

Portrait of the hat factory-owner August Hückel (1838–1917), signed, dated and inscribed P. Joanowitsch Wien 1914, 130 x 94 cm