Đura Jakšić

Georgije "Đura" Jakšić (born in Srpska Crnja, 27 July 1832 – died in Belgrade, 16 November 1878) was a Serbian poet and painter, also known as a dramatist, prose writer and a figure of Belgrade's bohemian life. He is one of the clearest representatives of Serbian Romanticism, a movement in which poetry and painting often shared the same patriotic and emotional impulse. He wrote in Serbian during the years when Serbia was moving from principality toward a more defined national culture.

The son of an Orthodox priest, he was schooled in Timișoara and Szeged, towns now in Romania and Hungary. He spent time in Zrenjanin, where he started to paint, and then tried to study fine arts in Vienna and Munich. The Revolution of 1848 cut short that training, and he never finished it. He fought in the revolution and was wounded at Srbobran. Afterwards he settled in Belgrade, in the Principality of Serbia, where he worked as a teacher, a proofreader in a state printing office and at various other jobs, often going without work. His liberal politics brought him under the eye of the authorities. He died in 1878, having joined an uprising against the Ottoman Turks in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

His poetry is passionate and patriotic, celebrating freedom, opposing tyranny and voicing a heavy, suffocating grief. The critic Jovan Skerlić saw the Hungarian poet Sándor Petőfi and Byron's poetry about the Greek War of Independence as main influences. He also wrote short stories, three verse dramas on historical themes and a novel. As a painter he combined patriotic subjects and portraits with uneven technique, producing some strong works alongside weaker ones. His house in Belgrade, in the bohemian quarter of Skadarlija, is now a cultural centre and exhibition space.

His legacy lies in Serbian literature and art. He is remembered as one of the great figures of his country's Romanticism, and the prize for the best poetry book in Serbian bears his name. Many schools across the former Yugoslavia also carry his name.