Anastas Jovanović's painting was sold at an auction in Zagreb for 12.000 euros. On it, the fiddler, who was the voice of the people, is listened to by all the Serbs seen at that time
"Serbs around the fiddler", a painting by Anastas Jovanović, was sold on Tuesday at the winter auction of the Zagreb house "Artmark Hrvatska" for 12.000 euros.
Anastas Jovanović (1817-1899) was the first Serbian lithographer and one of the first Serbian and international photographers, a loyal friend and associate of the Obrenović ruling family, and the court administrator of Prince Mihailo.
The initial auction price of his painting was 2.500 euros, and it was expected that it would not exceed 5000 euros. It is an oil on sheet, and it comes from a "reputable private collection from Banat", it was stated in the offer of the auction house.
The National Museum
It is not known who bought Anastas's "Fiddler", it is assumed that he is a private collector, and it is known that not a single museum from Serbia participated in the auction.
Besides this one, there are three more paintings by Anastas Jovanović with the same motif: two are in the National Museum of Serbia, and one is in Zagreb, in a private collection.
The National Museum keeps one "Fiddler" by Anastas Jovanović in a depot, and the other is exhibited in the Vuk i Dositej Museum. Apart from these two paintings, the National Museum also has a lithograph by Anastas Jovanović with the same motif and keeps it in the Collection of Drawings and Graphics, so it is understandable and justified why they were not interested in participating in the Zagreb auction. It is assumed that other museums probably thought the same way.
The violinist is the voice of the people
The fiddler immortalized by Anastas Jovanović is not Filip Višnjić, as was thought for a long time, but Laza Zuban, a friend and collaborator of Vuk Karadžić who sang heroic songs with the fiddle. It is remembered in history, it is noted in "Večernji novosti", that Zuban, as "the loudest of the scribes" on December 1, 1830, at a ceremony near the church of St. Mark in Belgrade, read the sultan's hatisherif and berat, by which Serbia was recognized as a "political entity", and Miloš Obrenović became a "hereditary prince".
The fiddlers were the voice of the people, they also transmitted with their singing with the fiddle, preserved the memory of battles, important personalities. Around the fiddlers in Anastas Jovanović's painting, not just any Serbs gathered, but all important and intelligent people of the time: Vuk Karadžić, Prince Mihailo Obrenović, Toma Vučić Perišić, Njegoš, Đuro Daničić, Branko Radičević, Jevrem Obrenović, and Anastas Jovanović himself. And they all listen to what the fiddler has to say.
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