Jelena Čović (Subotica, 1879 – Subotica, 1951) was the first academic woman painter of Subotica and the first Bunjevac woman painter. She began her artistic education at the private school of painter Gusztáv Kőszegi Brandl in Sopron (1900). After her first individual exhibition in Subotica, the town’s government led by mayor Lazo Mamužić, awarded her a scholarship (1901). She continued her education at the Royal Female Painting School in Budapest (1902), then in Munich (1903–1905), in Ažbe’s school whose diploma was signed by the Munich Academy. After summer in 1904, with the influence of her participation at the art colony in Nagybánya (1904–1906), she turned to plein air painting and landscapes. During the summer, she held painting classes in nature in Palić. In the phase of restoration of the church of the Franciscan monastery in Subotica, she donated the church her altarpiece Heart of Jesus (1911). She worked as a lecturer at the Women’s High Scool in Kőszeg (1907–1914). She experienced both world wars in her hometown. She taught art in Male Civic School, Female Vocational School and the Crafts and Trade School in Subotica. She exhibited on the exhibition of Bunjevac painters (1927), the exhibition of artists from Bačka (1932) and the exhibition of artists living and working in Subotica (1951) organised in the Municipal Museum of Subotica. Her portraits in the style of the Munich realism entered the collection of Dr Jovan Milekić’s Bačka Gallery, and as such, they are now in the collection of the Municipal Museum in Subotica.
(Olga K. Ninkov)
Bibliography:
Csáth Géza (1975): Írások az élet jó és rossz dolgairól. Életjel, Szabadka, 19–20.
Duranci, Bela (1996): Donacija dr Vinka Perčića, umjetnine zavičajne zbirke – Донација др Винка Перчића, уметничка дела завичајне збирке – Dr. Vinko Perčić adományának honi műgyűjteménye. Gradski muzej Subotica – Városi Múzeum, Szabadka, 53.
Gajdos Tibor (1995): Szabadka képzőművészete. Életjel, Szabadka.
Ninkov K. Olga (1999): Jelena Čović (1879–1951). Katalog izložbe – Kiállítási katalógus, Gradski muzej Subotica – Szabadkai Városi Múzeum.