Đura Jakšić

Đura Jakšić was born as Georgije Jakšić in Srpska Crnja, Austrian Empire (present-day Serbia). His father was a Serbian Orthodox priest. Georgije's early education took place in Timișoara and Szeged. He lived for a time in Zrenjanin, where he began studying painting under Konstantin Danil. He later studied fine arts in Vienna and Munich but the revolution of 1848 interrupted his education, which he never finished. He took active part in the 1848 Revolution and was wounded while fighting in Srbobran. After the revolution he moved to Belgrade, Principality of Serbia, where he served as a schoolteacher, a proofreader in a state-owned printing office, and in various other jobs, although he was often unemployed. As a political liberal, he was persecuted by authorities. Jakšić died in 1878, having had taken part in the uprising against the Turks in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Jakšić is one of the most expressive representatives of Serbian Romanticism. According to Serbian literary critic Jovan Skerlić, Jakšiċ was influenced mainly by Sándor Petőfi, the great Hungarian poet of the 1848 Revolution, and Lord Byron's poetry depicting the Greek War of Independence.

Đura Jakšić wrote about forty short stories and three full-length dramas in verse on historical themes: Stanoje Glavaš (1878) The Migration of the Serbs (Seoba Srbalja, 1864) Elizabeth the Montenegrin Queen (Jelisaveta kneginja crnogorska, 1868) and the novel Warriors. He also wrote poems, several of which are considered among the best of 19th-century Serbian poetry: Na Liparu (On the Lipar Hill), Put u Gornjak (The Road to Gornjak) and Mila, which is dedicated to his first love Mila, who he intended to marry but never found courage to tell her. He also drew sketches of Mila, one of which later became his famous painting "Devojka u Plavom" (The Girl in Blue). Other notable poems are Otadžbina (Fatherland), Veče (Evening) and Ponoć (Midnight). Jakšić published Pripovetke (Short Stories), which was released posthumously in two volumes on two occasions, 1882–1883 and 1902 in Belgrade. Through them he expressed his pessimism and bitterness about the harsh blows life and people had dealt him. A popular motif in Jakšić's work is the Battle of Kosovo, Kosovo myth, eagles and Serbian epic poetry.