Pál Petrovits Sold at Auction Prices

Altarpiece painter, Painter, Portrait painter, b. 1818 - d. 1887

Pavle Petrovic also variously spelled Pavel Petrovits, Paul Petrovits, Paulus Petrovitz, Paulus Petrovits and Pablo Petrovits (Serbian: ????? ????????: Timi?oara, Habsburg Monarchy, now part of Romania, 1818 - Rome, Kingdom of Italy, 14 June 1887) was a Serbian painter. He can be considered among the first 19th-century European-trained painters who decided to make a living by traveling for forty-year across all continents, leaving portraits behind him that capture the best of European Romanticism of the time. His works can be found in museums and private collections in Serbia, Romania, England, India, China, the United States of America, Hawaii, Chile, Peru, Canada, Australia, Egypt, and Italy.

While travelling to Australia in April 1881, Petrovic’s second wife, Elizabeth, suddenly took her own life. Police chief Frederick Standish investigated suicide and found no foul play, though that incident didn't stop the sensational press from spreading slanderous rumours overseas that would haunt Petrovic's reputation for years to come, eventually contributing to his marginalization altogether.

In the beginning, Petrovic was not well-known in his country of origin until Serbian art historian Miodrag Markovic began in 2015 researching his life and work.