Last year, a particularly precious work related to Szentendre and its history in a remarkable way made its way into the collection of the Museum of the Serbian Orthodox Eparchy of Buda by way of gifting. The work in question is a painting of Saint George by Uroš Predić (1857-1953), one of the most outstanding Serbian painters, from 1902, presented by Predić to the prominent Szentendre merchant Stevan Vujić as a gift. In fact, Vujić’s wife, Olga Barić, a native of Pančevo, was a relative of Uroš Predić’s.
Stevan Vujić had a trading centre at the main square of Szentendre and later he probably operated a few shops in Budapest as well. At a time, he even served as President of the Council of the Serbian Parish of Szentendre. Uroš Predić’s painting has been presented to the Serbian Ecclesiastical Museum of Szentendre by Stevan Vujić’s granddaughter with the wish that it may be preserved for future generations and bear testimony to the Serbian communities of Szentendre and to the Vujić family.
A special exhibition featuring – besides Uroš Predić’s painting – a selection of Stevan Vujić’s and Olga Barić’s family documents and photographs as well is expected to open in Szentendre this autumn. Preparations for the exhibition have recently begun, though part of the research work on the Vujić family was completed previously by workers of the Serbian Institute, Sofija Kaplan and Nada Hajdžan. An invaluable treasure of the Vujić family, Uroš Predić’s painting had been kept in Szentendre for over a century. Although the academic community had until lately been unaware of the existence of this work by Predić, thanks to the efforts of our Szentendre Museum, it will soon become available to a general audience as well.
