Last week, I spent an afternoon enjoying Belgrade’s main square and visiting the National Museum. The weather is warmer and people are out and about socializing. There’s always fun activity at Belgrade cafés, especially in Republic Square.
National Museum was built in 1903 by architects Andra Stevanović and Nikola Nestorović. Originally, the neo-renaissance building was used by the Treasury for “banking purposes”. It represents “monumental public palaces and architecture built in Belgrade at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries”. The building is truly beautiful inside and out!
This is a link to detailed information about the museum and it’s colorful history. The National Museum building is a “cultural heritage site of great importance for the Republic of Serbia”.
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“The National Museum (Narodni Muzej) is the oldest cultural institution in the Republic of Serbia. It was founded in 1844, although the first data about the collection of antiquities go back to 1820.” UNESCO Digital Library
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Miloš Tenković
In conjunction with the February 15th – 16th Sretenje holiday that marks Republic of Serbia Statehood Day, the Museum opened an exhibition of works by painter Miloš Tenković. He’s considered one of the most significant representatives of realism in Serbian painting during the second half of the 19th century.
Collections
Collections at the museum include:
- Prehistory – Lepenski Vir was mentioned in a 2021 post
- Ancient History
- Middle Ages
- New Age & Modern Period
I spent the most time viewing works in the New Age & Modern Period collection:
- Serbian Painting of the 18th and 19th Centuries – featuring realist pioneers – Antonije Kovačević, Miloš Tenković, & Đorđe Milovanović
- 20th century Yugoslav Paintings
- Drawings & Graphics of Yugoslavian Authors
- Yugoslav Sculpture
- Foreign Art
- Drawings & Graphics of Foreign Authors
- Museum of Vuk Karadžić & Dositej Obradović – memorial to Serbian cultural icons
Collections contain priceless works of art, but I especially enjoyed the “coloristic concept” in impressionistic art, cubist and avant-garde paintings by Pablo Picasso, and of course, the Old Masters. Works like Degas’ Refuges, Pissarro’s Effects of the Sun, Monet’s Cathedral in Pink, and Gauguin’s Tahitian Woman are admired by many.
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“Claude Monet celebrated the landscapes of modern life in his own way. The brilliant brushstrokes of Camille Pissarro reshaped Hausmann dehumanized Parisian boulevards. Pierre Auguste Renoir transformed the poor backyards of Montmartre into gardens of love.”
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I’ve explored the National Museum several times. It houses many treasures and is a great source of Serbian history and art. To coin the old adage, “a picture is worth a thousand words,” I’m attaching several favorites from this magnificent museum.