Vidosava Kovačević

Vidosava Kovačević (Belgrade, Kingdom of Serbia, 15 May 1889 – Belgrade, Kingdom of Serbia, 11 September 1913) was a painter, one of the first Serbian painters to be educated in Paris. She belonged to the circle of artists from the beginning of the 20th century, gathered around the School of Arts and Crafts and professors Rista and Beta Vukanović, as well as Marko Murat. She created in a short period, from 1905 to 1913, during which she crossed the path from realism to impressionism and eventually expressionism. Her parents were Serbian historian and politician Ljubomir Kovačević and his wife Draginja Draga. All their children were baptized by Stojan Novaković, the president of the Serbian Academy of Arts and Sciences and a well known Serbian intellectual. and then finished with the Girls' School (1899—1905), where her drawing teacher was the painter Rista Vukanović. At his suggestion, in 1903 she attended drawing classes and began her art education in 1905 at the School of Arts and Crafts in Belgrade. soon after the same disease took her sister Jela.

She was one of the first Serbian painters to be educated in Paris. Her painting development ranged from school lessons in the style of academism, through Art Nouveau stylization, work in the open air, typical of the Impressionists, to the phase of expressive colour and strong stroke.

Her works can be found at the Pavle Beljanski Memorial Collection, Gallery of Matica Srpska, the National Museum of Serbia, and other museums and private collections. Works from that period are characterized by confident drawing, studiousness, exceptional sense of composition and well-mastered anatomy. She also showed an exceptional sense of sculpture, but portrait painting remained the dominant genre for the rest of her life. She placed the characters on a dark background, dealing exclusively with realistic processing of the bright face. With a clear and detailed treatment of physiognomy, it remained part of the teachings of academism.

Second phase The works painted in Belgrade, immediately after finishing school, and the ones she painted during her stay in Paris belong to the second phase of her work. During this period, which lasted only two years (1911–1912), she searched for personal artistic expression. Under the influence of Kosta Miličević, she released the move, added a richer colour and brightened the palette. She paid special attention to the psychology of personality, the characterology of movement, emotionality and mental state.