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Leon Kojen: “Son of the Serbian Nation”

Artists’ relationships with contemporary social movements, government institutions, or national ideas shape their thematic repertoire and determined exhibition policies and public engagement. This was particularly evident during turbulent political times and in regions that experienced multinational conflict. The activities of Leon Kojen (1859–1934) provide a clear example of the relationship of the artist to society and the State. Kojen was a well-known Jewish painter from Serbia who in his work incorporated Jewish themes, while also expressing a commitment to the idea of the Serbian state. In scholarship to date, this has not been addressed even though it is of particular importance to better understand the art of Leon Kojen and Serbian culture at the turn of the last century. Leon Kojen was one of the most prominent Serbian artists of the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century (see Figure 1).1 He was born in 1859 into an old Belgrade Jewish family, in the Jewish quarter of Belgrade, Jalija. According to the preserved oral tradition, the family of Leon Kojen, some of whom were rabbis, settled in Belgrade as early as the 17th century. Leon was born into a large family and was particularly close to his brother David, who was a lawyer (see Figure 2). Even though it was predetermined in his family that he would be a tailor, Leon in his youth decided to pursue the study of painting. In Belgrade he received instruction in the fundamentals of painting from two prominent artists, Stevan Todorović and Djoka Milo-