Portrait du prince Bojidar Karageorgevitch

Overview

Marie's portrait of her friend Bojidar Karageorgevitch, oil on canvas, 116 × 73 cm, signed lower left "Bashkirtseff, 1883", is in the National Museum of Serbia in Belgrade, inventory NMS 34_912. The museum's 2026 exhibition catalogue describes the prince leaning nonchalantly on a railing, with an urban landscape stretching away behind him and a fragment of street at lower left. It reads the picture as a play between interior and open air, and between home and the freedom of the street, a subject that occupied Marie in her last years.

Making of the work

The diary follows the portrait through 1883. In early April she writes: "Je fais le tableau et un portrait de Bojidar, très chic..." (099.0045, 6 April 1883). A week later "Bojidar pose" (099.0126, 14 April), and in May "Je travaille au portrait de Bojidar" (099.0317, 2 May). In October Julian found it "très chic" (101.0541, 8 October), and the next day Marie thought it "bien": "Julian dit que ce peut être un grand succès, que c'est très original, très neuf et que ça paraîtra comme un Manet savant" (101.0549, 9 October). The same day she planned to "Exposer Bojidar dans une exposition d'hiver, au Cercle, et un portrait de Dina aussi" (101.0558).

History

The 1885 memorial catalogue lists it as no. 35, Portrait du Prince Bojidar Karageorgewitch, 1,15 × 0,78 m, matching the Belgrade canvas; a drawing Bojidar (no. 128) is listed separately. The Belgrade catalogue records the provenance as a gift of Princess Daria Karageorgevitch, the sitter's sister-in-law, to the Museum of Contemporary Art in Belgrade in the early 1930s. That museum was merged into the National Museum, then renamed the Museum of Prince Paul, in 1935. The portrait was shown as cat. 10 in the National Museum's exhibition Тежим путем ("The Harder Path", 2026).

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