Paris

Ljuba Ivanović visited Paris for the second time in 1930, accompanied by his friend, writer Momčilo Milošević (his first visit was in 1920). They recorded their impressions of this city, one in drawings and the other in words, “naturally, without any pretentions, out of the sheer necessity to express our personal feelings,” Milošević wrote in his book Letters from Paris (1931), illustrated by Ivanović. The drawings from Paris were also published in the portfolio Old Paris (1932). This drawing from the Beljanski collection was also done in Paris and it was in many ways a characteristic example of Ivanović’s “painting” in pencil. Very much inclined towards the urban landscape, the artist did not paint the familiar sights of Paris, images of the Eiffel Tower or the Arc de Triomphe. Instead, he chose to paint the narrow city alleyways, tall buildings with characteristic roofs and chimneys, bistros and narrow passageways. Although consistent in faithful depiction of the motif, these drawings were neither documentary nor realistic. In them, he insisted on the dark-light rhythm of the façades and architectural elements, the restlessness brought about by the dance of the light and the effect of time, as well as on a wistful atmosphere and the slow pace of the mundane, which the painter achieved by introducing an indifferent passer-by, a figure sitting calmly in a bistro, a parked automobile or a stationary carriage. Again, this was not familiar Paris with its cabarets, bustling boulevards and noisy dance parties, horse races and railway stations. It was a Paris of distant quarters, dilapidated buildings, quiet neighborhoods with general stores and time standing still. Through sheaves of strokes of different density, the artist created a contrast of light and shadow in all degrees of the scale from deep black to clear light gray, as well as a tonal gradation which lends the shapes a plastic appearance.