Decorating of the Bride (Serbian: Кићење невесте, Kićenje neveste) is an oil painting by the Serbian artist Paja Jovanović. It shows a young bride in traditional attire being prepared for her upcoming marriage by the female members of her household. It is one of two compositions Jovanović painted on the subject; the other is considered lost.
The painting was done between 1885 and 1888, during one of Jovanović's trips through the Balkans. It was painted for the French Gallery, with which Jovanović was under contract, and was well received by art critics and the public. It remained in the French Gallery's possession until 1893, when it was purchased by a London buyer. In 1935, the Yugoslav Ministry of Foreign Affairs purchased the work and bestowed it to the National Museum of Serbia, in whose possession it remains. In 2009, the painting began undergoing restoration. (Full article...)
Tomić belonged to the first class of six Serbian pilots trained in France in 1912. In August 1914, he participated in the first aerial dogfight of the war, when he exchanged gunfire with an Austro-Hungarian plane over western Serbia. In the winter of 1915, during the Serbian Army's retreat across Albania to the Greek island of Corfu, he evacuated General Petar Bojović from Scutari by plane, delivered mail by air and transported the Serbian Government's gold and hard currency reserves from Niš to keep them from falling into enemy hands. Following the occupation of Serbia by the Central Powers, Tomić went to France and flew over the Western Front, where he had one confirmed kill. He returned to the Balkans in late 1916, conducted combat missions over Bulgarian-occupied Macedonia and shot down one enemy plane. (Full article...)
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