Steva Todorović

Stevan "Steva" Todorović (Serbian Cyrillic: Стеван-Стева Тодоровић; Novi Sad, 1832–Belgrade, 1925) was a Serbian painter. As a correspondent of a number of domestic and foreign newspapers during the Serb-Turkish War, 1876-1878, he became known as the founder of war painting in Serbia. (In the Balkan Wars, and especially World War I, this was no longer an individual occupation but a task subject to state and military regulations.) Todorović was close to the Obrenović royal house. He did portraits of almost all members of this numerous royal family, Natalie of Serbia, daughter of a Moldavian nobleman and Russian Colonel Peter Ivanovich Kreschko and of Romanian Princess Pulcheria Sturdza. In the course of his long life he created art under various visual poetics, of Biedermeier through Romanticism to Academicism. His best works were carried out in the Romantic spirit. His extensive artistic legacy consists of portraits, religious and historical paintings, landscapes, and numerous studies and drawings. Much of his artistic activities is related to Serbia and Belgrade in which cultural and social life he actively participated. He opened the first art school in Belgrade where youngsters learned drawing, singing, fencing and gymnastic exercises. Owing to a long life and extraordinary tenacity and hard work he managed to create a rich painting opus. In Serbia in the second half of the 19th century we had some very great talents like the painters Stevan Aleksić, Djura Jakšić, Djordje Krstić, Paja Jovanović, Uroš Predić, Petar Ubavkić, and Steva Todorović, just to no name the most prominent ones. Todorović was born in Novi Sad and died in Belgrade.