Beta Vukanović

Who was Beta Vukanović?

Beta Vukanović was a Serbian painter and centenarian. Born in Bamberg, Germany to a Serbian family, Vukanovic initially studied painting at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Munich. She also worked with Anton Ažbe. From 1898 she lived mostly in Belgrade. Her earliest works reflected the influence of plein-air painting in Munich, which changed to Impressionism before World War I. Her later style was predominantly realistic; she painted many pictures of the Serbian landscape and its people. She was the originator of Serbian artistic caricature and left around 500 humorous portraits of contemporaries from the social and cultural scene in Belgrade. Her husband was painter Rista Vukanović. She died in Belgrade, aged 100.