Artist of the Day, October 20, 2025 : Sava Šumanović, a Serbian painter (#2396)

 Sava Šumanović (1896 –1942) was a Serbian painter. He is considered to be one of the most important Serbian painters of the 20th century. Šumanović's opus includes around 800 paintings as well as 400 drawings and sketches. He was executed during the mass genocide of Serbs in the Independent State of Croatia. 

Sava Šumanović was born in Vinkovci, Austria-Hungary (now in Croatia), the only child of mother Persida Šumanović and father Milutin Šumanović, who worked as an engineer. When Šumanović was four years old his family moved to Šid (modern-day Serbia). He graduated Zemun Gymnasium, where he was first introduced to the art of painting and the work of artists like Vincent van Gogh and Paul Cézanne. He later enrolled in the College of Crafts and Arts in Zagreb and soon after he lived in Paris for several years, since 1920. His professor in Paris was André Lhote. Šumanović befriended Amedeo Modigliani, Max Jacob and various Paris-based Serbian artists and writers such as Rastko Petrović.

Living for a couple of years in Croatia, Šumanović returned to Paris in late 1925, and stayed again for several years, accepting certain influences of the Matisse painting style. In 1927 he produced some of his best known works, including Pijana ladja (Drunken boat) and Doručak na travi (Luncheon on the grass). Šumanović returned to Šid in 1928 and after another year spent in Paris, eventually settled there in 1930. His major exhibition was at the Belgrade New University in 1939, where he exposed roughly 410 paintings mostly from the Šid period. It was his first major success after many years. He lived quietly in Šid until the outbreak of World War II in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in April 1941, when the Nazi puppet state Independent State of Croatia, led by the Croatian fascist Ustaše, occupied Syrmia and began a genocide campaign against Serbs, Jews, and Romani people.

When the Independent State of Croatia upon its establishment banned usage of Serbian Cyrillic, Šumanović stopped signing pictures and only put the year. Ustaše police arrested Šumanović together with 150 Serbian citizens and took them to a concentration camp in Hrvatska Mitrovica (today Sremska Mitrovica). Šumanović was executed there together with many other Serbs and buried in a common grave in a Serbian Orthodox graveyard.

His early artistic style was characterized by various influences, mainly Cubism but Fauvism and Expressionism as well. In his later works, Sava Šumanović managed to develop his own, rather original artistic expression, which he simply called "the way I know and can." Due to innovations and unique style, Šumanović can be described as one of the most prominent Serbian painters of the twentieth century as well as a major painter from the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.

A gallery devoted to Šumanović's work was established in 1952 based on a gift from Persida Šumanović, the painter's mother. The legacy of 417 works of art, out of which 356 are oil paintings is located in the Šumanović family home. In 1989 the building was renovated and the original exhibition area was expanded from 400 to 600 m2 (4,300 to 6,500 sq ft). This enabled a large number of paintings to be exhibited simultaneously. The main activity of the gallery is the preservation and presentation of paintings obtained as gifts. In addition to this, a rich collection of documentary materials has been amassed, as well as an extraordinarily rich Hermoteca (newspaper and periodical library), containing the catalogues from all the exhibitions held until now.

He is included in The 100 most prominent Serbs list. 

© 2025. All content on this blog is protected by international copyright laws All images are copyrighted © by Sava Šumanović or assignee. Apart from fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review as permitted under the Copyright Act, the use of any image from this site is prohibited unless prior written permission is obtained. All images used for illustrative purposes only

 Sava Šumanović

Iločki drum zimi,  c. 1942

Motif from Fontenay,  c. 1940

Model in the Studio, c. 1939

Kissing under the Moonlight,  c. 1939

Elm,  c. 1939

Portret  Devojcice,  c. 1939

Šid under Snow,  c. 1936

Ženski akt u crvenoj fotelji,  c. 1934

Women's Act of Head Blank,  c. 1934

Untitled,  c. 1934

Semi-laying female act on the divana,  c. 1934

Proleće u šidskim baštama,  c. 1934

Pred proleće,  c. 1934

Half-lying female nude on the couch,  c. 1934

Women's Acting,  c. 1932-34

Standing Women's Act,  c. 1932

Seoska kuća,  c. 1932

Paris bar,  c. 1929

Morning. c,  1929

Adlode from the vicinity of Paris,  c. 1929

Act in Seated Position,  c. 1929

Young Couple on a Bench in Town,  c. 1928

La Baignade des chevaux II, Sainte Anne de la Palud, c. 1928

Pijana lađa,  c. 1927

Luncheon on the Grass,  c. 1927

white vase,  c. 1926

Akt u enterijeru,  c. 1926

Selfportrait,  c. 1925

Bagpiper,  c. 1924

Paysage de Suresnes

Triptych Picker

Artist of the Day, October 19, 2020: Sava Šumanović, a Serbian painter (#1123)

Sava Šumanović (1896) parents Milutin and Persida came from prominent Šid bourgeois families. When Sava was four, the family returned to Šid. As a ten-year old, he enrolled in Real Gymnasium. It was in this period that he started showing interest in arts, so he took up a painting course by Professor Isidor Jung. Upon graduating, he returned home, determined to make painting his life calling. In 1914 Sava enrolled in Arts and Crafts College in Zagreb, which would allow him to work as a teacher.

He attended the first year in the class of Professor Oton Iveković, and the next three in the class of Klement Crnčić. The school program followed the works of old masters of art. The impressionists spurred his interest back in Zemun, so he went on to analyze and study their works on his own. He regularly took part in school exhibitions. His certificate of completed education noted the highest grades and qualifications.  He did illustrations for a literary magazine Juriš, edited by A.B. Šimić. He also worked as a scenographer in the National Theater. In May 1920 he had the second independent exhibition in the Museum of Arts and Crafts.

He presented the works indicating symbolism and secession, at the time being popular in Croatian art. The exhibition earned positive reviews, he sold a great number of paintings, and with the support of his father he headed to Paris, the main center of Europe's art scene at the time. His first stay in Paris lasted only a couple of months. He enrolled in a course by a renowned art educator and artist Andre Lot, being one of his best students. Šumanović's teacher belonged to the school of analytical cubism, constructivism. It was the time when the most significant cubist paintings in the history of Serbia's art were made: A sculptor in his studio, Still life with a clock, A sailor on the pier, Port agent. Andre Lot had a major influence on Šumanović throughout his entire life.

In the summer of 1921 he returned to Zagreb, and in October he organized an exhibition of paintings following the new style taken from Lot, in the Art Pavillion. The conservative critics and audience in Zagreb did not understand his new works.

In 1925 he painted his most significant work, the Drunk Ship. He created this painting of monumental dimensions by working committedly in only seven days and nights. He exhibited at the Salon des Indépendants, but the critics' reviews were divided. The Drunk Ship is now a part of collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Belgrade.

Difficult work conditions, negative criticism and a series of other personal events have brought the artist to nervous exhaustion, so in 1928 he returned to Šid for recovery. This period generated the first paintings of the Šid landscape - Srem County, a series of landscapes capturing the unique light and atmosphere of his hometown. This theme earned much more of his attention later on, once he returned home to stay. In September 1928 he exhibited the paintings created in Paris at the New University in Belgrade. He earned positive impressions from both the critics and the general audience, he sold out most of the paintings and once again headed to Paris.
 
At home in Šid, Šumanović entirely devoted himself to painting. For the first couple of years he painted acts based on the sketches he brought from Paris, and landscapes of his immediate surroundings, and these remained the dominant themes until the end of his life.

In September 1939 he organized a great independent exhibition at the New University in Belgrade, presenting 410 paintings. Being satisfied with the achieved success, he returned to Šid and continued working with great flight, in spite of the war that had just started. He was unlucky to peacefully devote himself to what he loved the most and did with highest skill.
The war eventually came to the small town of Šid, which became part of the Independent State of Croatia in 1941. Cyrilic became a prohibited alphabet. Sava Šumanović stopped signing his paintings. In a ridiculous action organized by Ustasha group on a holy day of the Dormition of the Mother of God, on 28 August 1942, he was arrested and shot in Sremska Mitrovica, together with a large group of Šid inhabitants, and buried in a common grave. This was the tragic end of one of the greatest Serbian painters of all times.

© 2020. All content on this blog is protected by international copyright laws All images are copyrighted © by Sava Šumanović or assignee. Apart from fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review as permitted under the Copyright Act, the use of any image from this site is prohibited unless prior written permission is obtained. All images used for illustrative purposes only

Mr. Sava Šumanović,

  Mornar na molu. 1921

 Bridge and a City, 1921

 Parisian Suburbs. 1921

 Shepherdess. 1924

 Akt u enterijeru. 1926

 White Vase. 1926

 Detail of The Lunchon on the grass. 1927

 Luncheon on the Grass. 1927

 Pijana lađa. 1927

 Bar u Parizu. 1929

 Morning.1929

 Nude Woman. 1929

 Seoska kuća. 1932

  Proleće u šidskim baštama. 1934

  Ženski akt u crvenoj fotelji. 1934

 Pred proleće. 1934

 Šid under Snow. 1935

  U dolini svete Petke. 1937

  Elm. 1939

 Šidski sokak pod snegom. 1940

At the Well, n.d.

Detail of the picture "At the Well"

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Portrait of a Woman

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