Institution of the Salon

Salon gatherings provided a wide range of social, cultural, artistic and political practices in the nineteenth-century Principality of Serbia. While Serbs in the Habsburg Empire had been already hosting salons since the eighteenth century, in the Principality of Serbia they appeared only in the late 1830s, first in Belgrade.Footnote ²⁵ The overall appearance of the family home, including interior design, was changed in the new principality by the gradual abandonment of the oriental lifestyle. In the new principality, the architecture of the family home changed from an Ottoman model in which privacy separation living space was a high priority to a Central European one characterized by salons – rooms for entertaining large groups of visitors.Footnote ²⁶ The salon was a unique environment in which the public and private spheres were intertwined. The most important room in bourgeois homes, the salon was where the family presented itself to the public.

Salons were organized in both court and bourgeois circles. They differed not only in terms of the type and scope of socializing (regular weekly visits and salon evenings organized for a large number of guests), or the time of day or season for which they were organized, but above all in relation to their participants. Thus, there were exclusively women's salons as well as mixed ones in which both sexes took part. Court salons in princely houses in the Principality of Serbia had a similar function to those held in bourgeois homes. Guests were welcomed in court salons on specific days, which made it possible for ‘a ruler to appear before the people in, so to say, a less authoritative way’.Footnote ²⁷

In the period from the mid-nineteenth century to the World War One, every fine house in Belgrade had a salon, and salon gatherings were an integral part of the bourgeois lifestyle. Salons were furnished with comfortable salon sets, armchairs, two-seaters and three-seaters, as well as small tables and other furniture characteristic of Biedermeier culture.Footnote ²⁸ Family valuables (silver, porcelain, glass) were displayed in showcases, while paintings, photographs, and portraits of family members hung on the walls. The items in the salon were diverse: from ‘modern European furniture, carpets, Pirot carpets, curtains and lace, to tapestry, silver candlesticks, Viennese porcelain and selected books’.Footnote ²⁹ Through illustrated catalogues, Viennese innovative home furnishing ideas reached small towns in the Balkans. In addition to the works of local writers, French adventure novels could also be found in private libraries. Since the 1830s, the most precious and the most representative object in the salon of a Serbian bourgeois family was the piano. And in the 1860s, a family photo album became a staple of the salon where it ‘secured its position on one of the tables near the piano’.Footnote ³⁰

Friendly conversation was a key aspect of socializing. The hosts of salons tried to ensure that all guests participated in the conversation, and that the conversation was refreshed and aimed in the desired direction or interrupted by a musical intermission if necessary. Conversation topics were mostly current events – theatre, artists’ guest appearances, the latest ball, a new engagement, a novel, weather and the like – though the idealized image of socializing was not always realistic: in the ever-present conversations about politics there were sharp differences of opinion. A buffet in the form of small refreshments was also a common practice. A significant portion of the entertainment programme was filled with music, with the piano being given priority and four-handed playing being a favourite. However, music was also played on other instruments in the salons and people also gladly sang. As a rule, salon gatherings ended with the performance of national and foreign dances. The entertainment programme did not always have a precise order, perhaps starting with various board games, before moving to playing, singing, reading poetry and dancing.Footnote ³¹

The First Intellectual and Artistic Circles in Belgrade: Salons of Tomanija and Jevrem Obrenović

The first salon gatherings were held in Belgrade in the 1830s in the house of Tomanija (1796–1881) and Jevrem Obrenović, during the reign of Prince Miloš Obrenović. One of the most important patrons of his time and an avid advocate of enlightenment, Jevrem Obrenović was highly influential in the political and cultural life of the Principality of Serbia. He gathered prominent writers in his home, financially supported the establishment of the National Library in Belgrade, as well as publishing new books as a sponsor, and also contributed to the education of students abroad.Footnote ³² His cultural and educational mission was reflected in the education of his children. His only son, Miloš, studied French and German with the writer Dimitrije Tirol (1793–1857). Jevrem also had five daughters – Jelena, Simona (Simka), Anka, Jekaterina and Stana, among whom Princess Anka Obrenović (1821–1868), who studied the piano and the guitar as well as German and French, stood out. From an early age, her translations of short works of German fiction were printed in Serbian periodicals. She published the first book of translated German stories Naravoučitelne povesti (Educational Stories) in 1836. In the same year she began a diary, which she kept for less than two years, until the beginning of 1838.Footnote ³³

The salons of Tomanija and Jevrem Obrenović, have all the characteristics of the nineteenth-century salon culture. In spacious rooms furnished in a modern style, guests were served specialties prepared especially for the occasion, which were a novelty in the Principality of Serbia at that time: ‘the rooms were large, comfortable, warm, and richly lit with millihertz candles. There were always a lot of wonderful sweet and savoury delicacies on the big table to eat, which at that time in Serbia could only be found in the residence of master Jevrem’.Footnote ³⁴ The home of Jevrem Obrenović hosted the first intellectual circle of Belgrade, where local and foreign prominent citizens and diplomats gathered. In addition to current topics from everyday life, the guests enjoyed literature, poetry and music. The conversation was often conducted in German. The works of mostly Serbian, German and French poets and writers were read, and various literary issues were also discussed.

The Austrian consul at the Serbian court Antun Mihanović (1796–1861) lent a special spirit to the salon gatherings.Footnote ³⁵ There he gladly talked about the cities in which he had lived and served (Zagreb, Rijeka, Naples, Venice, Padua), recited his poems or discussed literature and language.Footnote ³⁶ The English consul George Lloyd Hodges (1790–1862), who began his diplomatic career in the Balkans when he was appointed the first British consul in the Principality of Serbia on 30 January 1837, was also a welcome guest.Footnote ³⁷ Hodges actively participated in discussions on various topics. Konstantin Ranos (1812–1866),Footnote ³⁸ who was a professor of French language and literature to the sons of Prince Miloš Obrenović, read the verses of his close friend Alphonse de Lamartine (1790–1869).Footnote ³⁹ He was also happy to talk about French contemporary writers, and gave several lectures on ancient Greek woman poets, especially Sappho.

The daughters of Tomanija and Jevrem Obrenović – Jelena, Simona and Anka, along with their teacher Kristina Tirol – were responsible for the musical part of the programme. They played the piano solo or in four hands.Footnote ⁴⁰ In addition to playing the piano, Serbian folk songs were often sung. The Austrian consul Antun Mihanović wrote the sonnet ‘Viđenje’ (Vision) and the poem ‘Kamena dieva’ (The Stone Maiden) in honour of Princess Anka, with whom he was in love (Fig. 1). A setting of ‘Kamena dieva’ by the Croatian composer Ferdo Livadić (1799–1879) became very popular. According to Stošić, ‘it was sung all over Serbia and Vojvodina in the nineteenth century’.Footnote ⁴¹

Fig. 1 Ferdo Livadić, ‘Kamena dieva’ (The Stone Maiden), bars 11–18

In their salons, Tomanija and Jevrem Obrenović (Fig. 2) hosted distinguished visitors to Belgrade, among them Michal Jaborsky (1805–1894), a violinist and director of the Timișoara City Theatre OrchestraFootnote ⁴² who played in the Obrenović salon in addition to his three public concerts during his stay in Belgrade in 1842.Footnote ⁴³ After the departure of Consul Mihanović from Serbia, at the end of 1838, the salon gatherings in the home of Jevrem Obrenović lost their earlier momentum.Footnote ⁴⁴

Fig. 2 Jevrem Obrenović with his son Miloš and daughter Anka

Women's Salons

In the 1860s, Princess Anka Obrenović, now married to Aleksandar Konstantinović,Footnote ⁴⁵ organized salons that represented important social and cultural gathering places of the capital, hosting the most prominent fellow citizens and foreigners who stayed in Belgrade. In addition to general women's salons, she organized art salons, both for women only and for both sexes.Footnote ⁴⁶ The difference between women's salons and women's art salons was in the guests who took part, as well as in the thematic content of the gathering. It is important to mention that women's salons were also organized in middle-class homes. After the arrival in Belgrade of the sultan's Vizier from Vidin, Ali Rizâ Paşa, Footnote ⁴⁷ and his wife Meira, Princess Anka introduced the women only art salons. Meira, who had become a close friend of Anka's was not allowed to attend the mixed salons. Ali Rizâ Paşa (d. 1876) arrived in Serbia in 1862, after the Turkish bombing of Belgrade, at a time of very tense relations between Serbia and Turkey. Being a wise politician, he significantly contributed to the improvement of relations between the two countries. Hailing from an aristocratic family in Istanbul, Ali Rizâ Paşa was educated in Paris. He spoke French, German and English, and upon his arrival in Belgrade he studied Serbian. During his stay in Belgrade, he often went to the theatre, as well as to the balls organized by Prince Mihailo Obrenović.Footnote ⁴⁸ For the social and cultural life of Belgrade, it is important to consider the role of Ali Rizâ Paşa's first and chief wife, Meira, who arrived in Belgrade with him along with a large entourage of officials and a harem. Greek by her father and French by her mother, Meira was born on the Greek island of Tinos, where she was educated by French teachers. In addition to her knowledge of Turkish, Greek and French, she studied Serbian and German in Belgrade.

Women's salons had an educational function: they served to discuss innovations in education and the upbringing of women and young ladies. Princess Anka Obrenović Konstantinović organized women's salons for wives of higher ranked officials and wealthy merchants. The guests brought their daughters to the salons to have them learn ‘instructive European things’: good manners, home decorating, flower growing and gardening. Princess Anka advised her guests to read and visit theatre performances as much as possible.Footnote ⁴⁹ On the other hand, the teacher and the first woman lawyer in Serbia, Marija S. Milutinović (1810–1875),Footnote ⁵⁰ organized women's salons in her home on Tuesdays, which had two parts: practical-instructive and educational. Very educated and gladly seen among writers and poets, she instructed guests of her salons on ‘how to culturally manage the whole household’ (furnishing apartments ‘according to the Viennese model’, preparing various dishes, handicrafts, growing flower gardens), and then she avidly read Serbian folk epic poems, especially those on the heroism of women, and told French and German stories of didactic character. Milutinović was a close associate of Vuk S. Karadžić (1787–1864),Footnote ⁵¹ and she spoke about his work. Such gatherings regularly ended with the singing of folk songs, and often with the performing of some of the Serbian folk dances, which were played on the piano. These types of salons were primarily aimed at the education and upbringing young women, with a clear aspiration to cultivate patriotic self-awareness.

The women's art salons were primarily organized to give women of the courtly elite and the highest state circles the opportunity for entertainment and art appreciation. Gatherings in the women's art salons of Anka Obrenović started at 2 p.m. and ended in winter at 5 p.m. and in summer at 6 p.m. at the latest. In addition to prominent Belgrade women, Anka invited wives of foreign diplomats accredited at the Serbian court, as well as wives of senior Austrian officers from military garrisons in VojvodinaFootnote ⁵² (Zemun, Pančevo, Petrovaradin), mostly Serbian and Croatian women. The dress of these women included both traditional and modern European styles. Princess Anka and her mother Tomanija, and the wives of foreign diplomats and Austrian officers, dressed in European fashion, although Anka sometimes wore ‘luxurious Serbian folk costumes’. The wives of foreign diplomats pointed out that the women guests at salons of Princess Anka Obrenović Konstantinović were as fashionable as those at the most elegant European salon gatherings.Footnote ⁵³ During the programme intermissions, guests were offered a ‘rich buffet’.

Gatherings began with courtesy stories from the everyday life of the guests, and then the hostess read poems by French and German romantic poets, in the original or translation, but she would also always read one Serbian folk poem or story. Other guests also took part in reading poetry and prose, as well as the daily press, so political issues in Europe were also discussed, as well as Serbia's position on the socio-political map of the time. Playing and singing was an indispensable part of women's art salons, with playing the piano in four hands being the favourite one. The women's art salons gatherings ended with performing on the piano Serbian folk dances, waltzes and csárdáses, which were very modern in 1860s Belgrade.Footnote ⁵⁵

It is interesting that Ali Rizâ Paşa's wife Meira also held women's art salons, whose regular guests, in addition to the prominent women of Belgrade, included women from Vojvodina. The luxury salons were decorated with Persian carpets and items made of porcelain, silver, gold and amber. The guests sat on feather pillows made of velvet and satin, which were placed on the carpets and floor, with the exception of the women guests from Vojvodina, who sat on chairs, ‘because of their large corsets like armour’.Footnote ⁵⁶ Guests were served traditional Turkish dishes. Paşa's wife Meira dressed in a more European way in the house, but she wore a Turkish traditional costume with niqab when she went for a visit or when she received guests.

Since she played the piano, the violin and the guitar very well and sang beautifully, Meira often entertained her guests by performing on one of the instruments or singing to them. Her favourite song was ‘Sunce jarko, ne sijaš jednako’ (Bright Sun, You Do not Shine Equally). The lyrics of this song were written by Isidor Ćirić (1844–1893) and it was published by Kornelije Stanković in Vienna in 1862, in the first book of Srbske narodne pesme (Serbian Folk Songs) dedicated to Prince Mihailo Obrenović. Tchaikovsky was also attracted to the beauty of this folk song and used it in the Marche Slave in B-flat minor, Op. 31. The women of Belgrade sang Serbian folk songs, while guests from Vojvodina, in addition to old Serbian and Croatian songs, also gladly performed German and Hungarian ones.Footnote ⁵⁷

It is especially interesting to consider the dance segment of the gatherings in the salons of Ali Rizâ Paşa's wife Meira, which ended with dancing čoček (chochek),Footnote ⁵⁸ as well as European dances, of which women guests from Vojvodina were particularly fond. ‘Famous čoček women dancers Zaida and her daughters Ajša and Zaza’Footnote ⁵⁹ danced in the salon of Ali Rizâ Paşa's wife Meira. Thus, the guests, and some of them for the first time, could see the belly dancing of these excellent dancers. The most popular dance was the waltz, which Meira danced very well.Footnote ⁶⁰ The women guests in the salon danced with each other, most often to the piano. In the end, each guest received a gift basket with southern fruit, yellow sugar, rahat lokum, candies, musk soap, rose oil and a bottle of Western European fragrance. Meira's salons offer a window into the semi-private world of the wife of a high-ranking Ottoman official. Extremely well-read and musically educated, Meira was the heart of her art salons, achieving a unique blend of East and West through her own activity and the diversity of the women she hosted, their clothes, different languages and alternating ‘sounds’ of čoček and waltzes.Footnote ⁶¹

The salons of Meira and of Princess Anka were visited by the same guests, who were friends with each other. In addition to prominent Belgrade women, the wives of foreign diplomats, accredited at the Serbian court, and the wives of senior officers from military garrisons in Vojvodina, there were also actresses, poets and distinguished guests from abroad. Among them was the wife of the Italian Consul Stefano Scovasso who was noted to have read Giacomo Leopardi's verses and excerpts from Alessandro Manzoni's I promessi sposi in the original, and who played the popular Italian patriotic song of the time Viva l'Italia on the piano.Footnote ⁶² During their stay in Belgrade, from September 1863 to April 1864, the English suffragists Adelina Paulina Irby and Georgina Muir Mackenzie also visited these women's salons.Footnote ⁶³ During that period, they studied Serbian with Professor Nikola Krstić (1829–1902) and prepared for publication the notes from their travels.Footnote ⁶⁴ The women's salons of Anka Obrenović and Ali Rizâ Paşa's wife Meira are an interesting testimony to the cultural coexistence of members of the Orthodox, Catholic and Muslim religions.

Mixed Salons

Mixed salons drew a much wider circle of distinguished guests, since all key positions in the social life of the capital belonged to men. Prominent politicians, diplomats, professors, artists and other important people attended such gatherings. It is also important that these gatherings had no curfew, unlike women's salons which ended by 5 p.m., and in summer no later than 6 p.m.

The mixed salons organized by Princess Anka Obrenović Konstantinović in the 1860s had an artistico-political character: poems and stories were read, the piano, violin and guitar were played, and domestic and foreign affairs were discussed. These salons were more diverse than the women's only ones in their inclusion of intellectual content along with music and literature; the guests were often university professors, and the political dimension was very pronounced in conversations – a feature that was present, but much less prominent in the women's salons.

Although politics was discussed primarily by men, women also took part in the conversations. Among the active women participants in such discussions was Katarina (Đorđević) Milovuk, the first woman principal of the Women's College in Belgrade and wife of the choirmaster of the Belgrade Singing Society Milan Milovuk. Ali Rizâ Paşa was also a welcome guest, and the spiritus movens of the salons was the painter Stevan Todorović (1832–1925), who spoke to the guests about contemporary German and Hungarian fine arts. Todorović was a good friend of composer and pianist Kornelije Stanković (Fig. 3), and he often performed as an amateur singer (baritone) with him at concerts. Their friendship had begun during their studies in Vienna, and they brought ideas from the Habsburg capital and the pan-Slavic circle of intellectuals and artists to Belgrade and the Belgrade Singing Society – ideas that helped to establish a Serbian national art. Todorović was first a member of the Belgrade Singing Society and later their notary, secretary and president.Footnote ⁶⁵

Fig. 3 Stevan Todorović, Portrait of Kornelije Stanković, 1850

During Stanković's stay in Belgrade, in May and June 1861, Princess Anka Obrenović Konstantinović organized several salon gatherings in his honour, in order to present him to respectable Belgraders. In addition to folk songs, her guests ‘played classical pieces on the violin, guitar and piano’.Footnote ⁶⁶ Stanković's repertoire included, in addition to his own works (variations on Serbian folk songs, quadrilles, Serbian folk dances), compositions by Franz Liszt and Sigismund Thalberg, as well as then-popular and today-forgotten salon pianists-composers such as Jacob Blumenthal (1829–1908), Louis Lacomb (1818–1884), Rudolf Willmers (1821–1878) and Josef Eduard Maximilian Pirkhert (1817–1881). His repertoire primarily included compositions showing technical bravura – opera paraphrases, etudes and fantasies. Contemporary articles and concert programmes show that often performed the following compositions: F. Liszt, Illustrations du Prophéte – Les Patineuers, S. 414; Schubert/Liszt, Ständchen; J. Blumenthal, La Source. Caprice pour le Piano, Op.1; R. Willmers: Sehnsucht am Meere, Op. 8; Ein Sommertag in Norwegen, Grosse Fantasie, Op. 27; L. Lacombe: Grosse Octaven Etude; E.M.J. Pirkhert: Etude, Op. 10, No. 5, D-flat major; S. Thalberg: Marche funèbre variée, Op. 59; Grand caprice sur des motifs de l'opéra la Sonnambula di Bellini, Op. 46.Footnote ⁶⁷ In the salons of Anka Obrenović Konstantinović, Stanković played alone or in four hands with the guests or he accompanied Stevan Todorović's baritone. His piano variations on the song ‘So Restlessly, Why Do I Dwell’, Op.6 (Fig. 4), which he published in Vienna in 1857,Footnote ⁶⁸ were very popular, as were his arrangements of Serbian folk songs for voice and piano on love themes, such as ‘Aj, sjela moma na pendžeru’ (Ah, a Maiden is Sitting on a Window; Fig. 5). The guests danced waltzes and csárdáses with Stanković and taught him Serbian folk dances – kolos.Footnote ⁶⁹

Fig. 4 Kornelije Stanković, ‘Što se bore misli moje’ (So Restlessly, Why Do I Dwell), piano variations, Op. 6, bars 22–25

Fig. 5 Kornelije Stanković, ‘Aj, sjela moma na pendžeru’ (Ah, a Maiden is Sitting at the Window), bars 1–4Footnote ⁷¹

In addition to the ruling Obrenović dynasty, salon gatherings were held in the home of Teodor Herbez (1790–1866) and his wife Jelenka, as well as in other bourgeois houses. Herbez was educated in Padua, where he received his doctorate in Law; after completing his studies he moved to Russia, where he earned a higher military rank. From 1844, the Herbezs held salons in their large, elegant house, equipped with furniture from Vienna, in the evenings, and especially in the winter period. Their home was the centre of social life in the capital; the regular participants of these gatherings included members of the courtly elite, members of the State Council, professors of the Belgrade Lyceum, intellectuals, artists, politicians, military officers, and others.Footnote ⁷⁰ Other welcome guests included Prince Mihailo Obrenović, Princess Anka Obrenović Konstantinović, the President of the State Council Stojan Simić and his wife, professors of the Belgrade Lyceum Konstantin Ranos, Konstantin Branković, Josif Pančić, and the writer and diplomat Matija Ban with his wife. Mrs. Jelenka Herbez was a role model for distinguished Belgrade ladies: she spoke Turkish and Romanian and, thanks to her husband, she also had the opportunity to learn French and German, as well as to take piano lessons. Also a something of a fashion leader, Mrs. Herbez played the piano and entertained guests dressed in the latest European dress.Footnote ⁷² The salon evenings organized by the Herbezs contributed to his reputation and expanded the network of social contacts. At the salon gatherings, people sang and played, and discussed domestic and foreign politics as well as contemporary writers. The guests also enjoyed popular international and Serbian folk dances.Footnote ⁷³

At the beginning of the 1870s, the salon type gatherings from court and aristocratic luxurious salons became widespread in the more modest homes of Belgrade intellectuals. For example, in the house of grammar school professor and historian Gavrilo Vitković (1829/30–1902) and his wife Lujza, the gatherings were held twice a week and lasted until the early morning hours. Gavrilo Vitković had completed primary and secondary school in Buda, and had studied technical sciences at the University of Pest. He moved to Serbia in 1855 and worked as a professor in grammar schools in Kragujevac and Belgrade.Footnote ⁷⁴ In the salon of the Vitković family the guests read political dailies and discussed current socio-political issues. They also discussed translated excerpts from the works of contemporary French, Russian and German realist writers and talked about ‘contemporary political doctrines of the new socialism in Europe’.Footnote ⁷⁵ Lujza Vitković and her sister Jelena actively participated in the discussions and played the piano. Russian romances were sung and played in Belgrade for the first time in the Vitković family home. Prominent guests included the politician and founder of socialism among Serbs, Svetozar Marković (1846–1875) and his brother Jevrem. The sisters Milica and Anka Ninković, originally from Novi Sad, were also regular participants. The Ninković sisters, who studied pedagogy in Zurich, were avid supporters of socialist ideas.Footnote ⁷⁶ At salon gatherings, they talked about Russian women socialists who had been forced to emigrate to Switzerland due to their political activity. At the end of the 1870s, the first woman doctor in Serbia, Draga Ljočić (1855–1926), who completed her studies in Zurich and was a prominent fighter for gender equality, joined this circle. The salons in the home of the Vitković family indicate different educational and cultural goals, both in the choice of guests and in the content of such gatherings. Women actively discussed current political, social and economic issues and the position of women in society, and they did not hesitate to act publicly.Footnote ⁷⁷

In the city milieu, taverns often ‘substituted’ for the institution of salon. Only men gathered in them, so the possibility of making male–female acquaintances was excluded, as was the possibility of the lady-host as the central person in the salon. Such gatherings took place in a public space, and everyone had to pay for their own order. The participants were connected by common interests. There were present ensembles (mostly wind or tamburitza ensembles) that performed a popular repertoire.Footnote ⁷⁸