Lot 334
NICHOLAS PETKOVICH (Serbian/American 1893-1952)
Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane
Oil on board
Signed lower right
28 inches x 16 inches (71 x 41 cm)
Estimate:  $300 - 500  

Price Realized: $281.25

Born in the city of Indjija, Serbia north of Belgrade, in 1893, Nicholas Petkovich was by all accounts deeply humble, deeply spiritual and deeply devoted to painting and was known to sometimes give a painting away rather than accept payment. He began his academic career first in law school then transferred to the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna (1912). That was followed by a stint in the Serbian Army during the first Balkans War, and then a period of monastic life, before joining other immigrants in the small Serbian enclave in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania in 1916. In Pittsburg he served in the role of a Serbian Orthodox priest for a time and he enrolled in the Carnegie Institute where he would later find rudimentary employment, and more importantly where he would become lifelong friends with artists Henry Hubbell, Norwood MacGilvary and Andrey Avinoff. While Petkovich painted all his life and even returned to Serbia and Paris to paint for an extended period, it was not until long after his death in 1952 and indeed until very recently that Petkovich’s work has begun to be critically assessed primarily in his native Serbia. In his early career he would most accurately be identified as a realist painter utilizing impressionist and postimpressionistic (pointillism) techniques. However, by the 1930’s he ventured into a more surreal style producing almost exclusively his vision of the Christian chronicle such as the offered lot.