The Tragic Story of Leon Koen, the First Sephardi Painter
from Belgrade: A Symbolist and Admirer of Nietzsche
Vesna Adić
Leon Koen (1859–1934) was the youngest of the six
children of Aron and Sara Koen, Sephardi merchants of
modest means, in Belgrade. Contrary to his parents’ wishes
and expectations, he was the first Sephardi Jew who grew
up in the city’s Jewish quarter, the so-called Jalia, to live
the life of an artist. Until the mid-nineteenth century,
most of Belgrade’s Sephardi Jews, like the Koen family,
lived withdrawn lives in this modest city quarter, guided by
the patriarchal rules of a religious community that shaped
people’s habits, customs, and behavior. However, after the
Berlin Congress in 1878, when the Serbian government
accepted the obligation to grant absolute equality to all
its citizens without distinction of origin and religion –
eventually implemented in 1888 – Belgrade’s Jews began
their rapid integration into the economic, political, and
cultural life of the capital.1 Leon Koen thus belonged to
the first generation of Belgrade’s Jews who experienced
the benefits – and drawbacks – of emancipation, both
within and outside the Sephardi community.
This article is a first attempt to bring the art and life of Leon Koen to the
attention of an English-reading audience in the West. It is based upon a paper
written for the International Workshop on Jewish Art and Tradition, held at the
Faculty of Philosophy, Univesrity of Belgrade, Serbia, 27 January–10 February
2008. Much of the research regarding Koen’s development and importance
for Jewish, Serbian, and European art still remains to be conducted. In the
hope that this text will encourage it, I would like to thank to all who helped
in its preparation, notably my teacher and mentor, Dr Nenad Makuljevic of
the University of Belgrade, Dr Mirjam Rajner of Bar-Ilan University, who
guided the research and writing of the original paper and this article, and
the exeptionally helpful staff of the Jewish Historical Museum in Belgrade.
Throughout the text the spelling of the artist’s surname will follow its Serbian
transliteration – Koen, used by the artist and by Serbian authors writing about
him, rather then the widespread English spelling of Cohen.
In spite of his traditional and modest family background,
coupled with harsh material conditions, already as a very
young man Koen demonstrated tremendous creative
powers. His thirst for knowledge and wish to become a
trained artist led him to Munich where he simultaneously
studied art at the Academy and attended lectures at the
University of Munich as a part-time student, choosing
subjects such as art history, philosophy, psychology, and
physiology. The result was that he became a forerunner
of modernity: the first to introduce Symbolist tendencies
into the Serbian artistic scene, still overburdened by
historical painting, and the first to translate the works of
Friedrich Nietzsche into Serbian. These innovative steps,
coupled with his choice of subjects which clearly reflected
the search for a new identity and included themes such as
Serbian historical heroes, biblical scenes, symbolic images
of the Wandering Jew, and pogroms on the one hand,
and Nietzschean representations of Nature, on the other,
shook his hometown’s dormant artistic and intellectual
1 A large group of Sephardi Jews arrived in Belgrade in 1521, immediately
after the Turkish conquest of the city. Unlike the native Romaniot
Jews, who at that time already dwelled along the Sava River, Sephardim
settled along the Danube, in the Turkish part of the town called Dortjol,
where they soon formed a Jewish quarter, the mahala (from Turkish
mahalle), which they named Jalia (from the Turkish yali – waterside
A r s
residence). For the history of Belgrade’s Jews, see Ženi Lebl, Do
“konačnog rešenja” – Jevreji u Beogradu 1521–1942 (Belgrade, 2001),
4–5 (published also as Jennie Lebl, Until the “Final Solution”: The Jews
J u d a i c a
in Belgrade 1521–1942 [Bergenfield, NJ, 2007]); Ignjat Šlang, Jevreji u
Beogradu (Jews in Belgrade) (Belgrade, 2006; first ed., 1926); Zbornik
jevrejskog istorijskog muzeja, no. 6 (a collection of articles about the Jews
in Belgrade published by the Jewish Historical Museum (Belgrade,
2 0 0 9
1992). See also Divna Ðurić-Zamolo “Stara jevrejska četvrt i Jevrejska
ulica u Beogradu” (The Old Jewish Quarter and Jewish Street in
Belgrade), Jevrejski Almanah 1965–67: 54.
1
 Vesna Adić

life. Unfortunately, oversensitive and painfully lacking

understanding and recognition of his efforts, already in his
forties Koen sank into mental illness and ceased to paint.
By then he had managed to create about one hundred
sketches and canvases. Although towards the end of his
life his art became better understood, appreciated, and
more widely exhibited,2 during the events of World War
II, the Holocaust, and its aftermath almost his entire opus
was destroyed or lost, leaving us today with only a handful
of his works.3
The aim of this article is twofold: in the first part it
will attempt to rescue Leon Koen’s shattered opus from
oblivion and introduce the readers to this unknown Jewish
artist and his work; in the second part it will examine
Koen’s attitude towards Nietzsche’s philosophy, whose
influence – as yet unexplored – will be examined both in
Koen’s paintings and in his writings. Hopefully, this will
explain more clearly Koen’s affinities towards modern and
innovative streams of contemporary art and thought and
thus demonstrate his search for broad universal values,
typical of the first generation of young, emancipated Fig. 1. David and Leon Koen, photograph, ca. 1895, Jewish Historical Museum,
Belgrade
Serbian Jews trying to define their new identities, which
were divided between their Jewish background, the Serbian
environment, and education acquired in the West.4 of psychic hypersensitivity, which later developed into
clinically diagnosed paranoia. Not finding himself in
Leon Koen’s Biography and Artistic either professions or crafts, he was sent by his parents
Development to study at a commercial school in Belgrade, tailoring in
Family and friends described young Leon Koen as a good- the provincial city of Šabac, or women’s dressmaking in
natured, but sometimes absentminded and melancholic, Belgrade, Koen constantly wandered from place to place,
child who did not display much interest in school. 5 searching for ways to express himself. 6 While learning
According to testimonies, he was usually immersed in a to draw sketches and patterns for the shop, he became
world of his own and already in his youth showed signs aware of his artistic talent. It was then that Koen filled

2 For Koen’s pre-WW II exhibitions held in Belgrade in 1898, 1926, and Leon Koen and his art, by both Serbian and Serbian-Jewish authors.
1935, see Božidar Nikolajević, “O slikaru Leonu Koenu” (On Painter They were published either in connection with exhibitions of his work,
2 0 0 9

Leon Koen), Male novine, no. 13 (Belgrade, 1898), 156; Rade Marković, or as independent articles in scientific journals and books, mainly
“Izložba slika Leona Koena” (The Exhibition of Leon Koen’s Artwork), exploring the formal qualities of his art. However, a monographic, in-
Vreme, 5 May 1926; Božidar Nikolajević, “Povodom izložbe radova depth study of his work with an analysis of Koen’s unusual iconography
J u d a i c a

Leona Koena u Paviljonu Cvijete Zuzorić” (On the Occasion of the
Exhibition of Leon Koen’s Artwork in the Cvijeta Zuzorić Pavilion),
Ideje 1, 23 (1935).
3 Recently much effort was expended by Nikola Šuica to reconstruct the
entire Koen opus. See Nikola Šuica, Leon Koen: 1859–1934 [catalogue,
A r s
is still a desideratum.
5 Zora Simić-Milovanović, “Slikar Leon Koen” (The Painter Leon Koen),
Godišnjak Muzeja grada Beograda 2 (1955): 378.
6 Žak Alkalaj, “Leon Koen,” unpublished monograph written in the
1950s. The manuscript is deposited in the Jewish Historical Museum in

Jugoslovenska galerija umetničkih dela] (Belgrade, 2001). Belgrade, sig. 3556. R 30-1-2/1,1.
4 From 1898 until 2001 a number of articles were written in Serbian about

2
 The Tragic Story of Leon Koen, the First Sephardi Painter from Belgrade: A Symbolist and Admirer of Nietzsche
his parental house with sketches and began neglecting
his work in the dressmaking shop, withdrawing at every
opportunity to some lonely corner with paper and charcoal
in his hands. 7 The family strongly disapproved of the
direction the young man’s development was taking, and
the only one who showed understanding for the budding
artist was his older brother David, with whom the future
painter spent most of his time (fig. 1).
David Koen was a lawyer by profession and a passionate
Serbian patriot who in 1897 published a Sermon to Serbian
Youth of Moses’ Faith, based upon a series of sermons
delivered in a number of Serbian-Jewish communities
during the period of 1881–87. He preached in favor of the
adoption of Serbian national identity, while at the same
time preserving the ancestral faith.8 As a result of such
dual identity advocated by his brother, the young artist
developed an avid interest in Serbian history and was
known to possess a copy of the New Testament in Serbian
translation. 9 Moreover, he developed a syncretistic
religious identity, trying to combine Christian and Jewish
traditions.
During 1881–82 Koen began taking private painting
lessons with Stevan Todorović, 10 a renowned Serbian
painter of that time. Todorović’s painting Hajduk Veljko
next to the Cannon (1860) was one of the national
icons symbolizing the Serbian struggle for freedom and
7 Radmila Bunuševac, “Nekoliko anegdota iz života Leona Koena
mesto biografije” (Several Anecdotes about Koen’s Life, Instead of a
Biography), Politika, 19 May 1937: 9; Alkalaj, “Leon Koen,” 1.
8 In his speeches David Koen described Serbia as a tolerant state with
“the spirit of freedom, equality, and brotherhood, without religious or
national discrimination.” He believed that the Serbian nation had an
important historical mission in Europe, and hence served as a commissar
of the Serbian government during the Balkan wars (1912–13). He was
killed by the Bulgarians during WW I because he refused to renounce
the book he wrote during the Balkan wars: God Guards the Serbs – The
Apotheosis of the Serbian Genius in the Light of Religion; see Miloševic
Mihailo, Jevreji za slobodu Srbije: 1912–1918 (Jews for the Freedom of
Serbia) (Belgrade, 1995), 74–79; Alkalaj, “Leon Koen,” 2–3; Simić-
Milovanović, “Slkar Leon Koen”: 378.
9 Simić-Milovanović, “Slikar Leon Koen”: 400.
10 Stevan Todorović (1832–1925), born in Novi Sad, studied painting
in Vienna and afterwards in Munich for a short time. After returning
to Belgrade, he opened a private painting school and initiated various
cultural events, not only connected to art (for example, he established
the first Gymnastic Society in Serbia). During his early career he
independence from the Turks (fig. 2). During that same
period, Koen spent evenings attending cultural events such
as theater plays and public lectures at the Great School of
Belgrade, the predecessor of Belgrade University.11 The
series of lectures “In Front of Shakespeare,” delivered
in 1882 by professor of literature Svetomir Nikolajević,
proved to be of decisive importance for Koen’s further
development. Despite the strong protests of his parents,
he finally abandoned his dressmaking apprenticeship
and decided to devote himself entirely to art, supporting
himself by designing advertisements.12
In the early autumn of 1882, with the financial help of
his brother David, Leon Koen traveled for the first time
to Munich, intending to enroll in the Academy of Fine
Arts. Due to the first signs of mental illness, however,
he returned to Belgrade after only one year. Upon
receiving treatment in the local hospital and considered
“cured,”13during 1883–84 he continued with art lessons,
now with a more advanced Serbian painter, Djordje
Milovanović. Milanović was Belgrade’s representative of
new influences coming from Munich and in his still lifes
combined romantic and realist approaches.14 Encouraged
by success and his new teacher’s support, in 1884 Koen
departed once again for Munich to devote himself entirely
to his studies at the Academy. This time the wealthy
Belgrade banker Edija Buli15 offered him a travel stipend
painted in the style of National Romanticism. Later, he stagnated
artistically, painting a vast number of portraits in the academic manner,
commissioned mostly by the members of Belgrade’s high society; see
Nikola Kusovac, Milena Vrbaski, Vera Grujic, and Vanja Kraut, Stevan
Todorovic 1832–1925 (Belgrade and Novi Sad, 2002).
11 Simić-Milovanović, “Slikar Leon Koen”: 381. The Great School of
Belgrade was established on 13 September 1808, in today’s oldest
preserved Turkish building in Belgrade. See Vladimir Grujic, Licej i
Velika skola (Lyceum and the Great School) (Belgrade, 1987).
12 Alkalaj, “Leon Koen,” 3.
A r s
13 Ibid.
14 Simić-Milovanović, “Slikar Leon Koen”: 381, 387.
15 Edija Buli (1834–1907), a merchant, founder of a bank, and politician,
J u d a i c a
was chosen in 1869 as a Member of Parliament by Serbia’s King
Milan Obrenović. He was accepted in Belgrade’s higher social circles
as a modern and progressive businessman, with many international
contacts. See Nebojša Jovanović, “Pregled istorije beogradskih Jevreja
2 0 0 9
do sticanja grad̄anske ravnopravnosti” (History of Belgrade Jewry before
they Attained Civil Equality), Zbornik jevrejskog istorijskog muzeja, no. 6,
(Belgrade, 1992), 145–47.
3
 Vesna Adić
Fig. 2. Stevan Todorović, Hajduk Veljko next to the Cannon, 1862, oil on metal, 84 x 57 cm, National Museum, Belgrade
and, together with other prominent members of Belgrade
Jewry, sent recommendations introducing Koen to one of
Munich’s Jewish welfare societies.16 However, this proved
to be inadequate, and although his success at the Academy
led to a reduction in tuition, Koen was forced to appeal to
the Serbian Ministry of Education for financial help.17
Since there is a significant lack of known material
and documents relating to Koen’s Munich years, this
correspodence with the Serbian authorities is at the
2 0 0 9
moment still of the utmost importance. 18 While on
the one hand it offers valuable information about
J u d a i c a
16 Alkalaj, “Leon Koen,” 8.
17 It seems that instead of receiving a regular stipend Koen was obliged
to have lunch with a different Jewish family each day at a precisely
appointed time, which drew him away from the classes and did
A r s
not provide him with money for necessary accessories. He was also
encouraged to turn to the Serbian authorities for help by the German
4
the course of Koen’s studies, the teachers with whom
he studied, and the works he created, on the other hand
it is indicative of the level of psychological difficulties
which he experienced due to unfulfilled expectations,
both his own and those of the Ministry. This, alongside
the lack of understanding and support of the latter,
seemed to have significantly influenced his fragile mental
balance Thus, we know that the Serbian Ministry of
Education approved Koen’s request for a scholarship on
1 May 1885 and he signed a contract by which he accepted
strict obligations to regularly send detailed reports
educational authorities who, due to Koen’s great success during the
first semester, reduced his Academy fees by half, expecting the Serbian
government to provide the other half; see Alkalaj, “Leon Koen,” 8–9;
Simić-Milovanović, “Slikar Leon Koen”: 393.
18 In the holdings of the Archives of Serbia, Ministry of Education
Department, in the folders for the years 1886 and 1890.
 The Tragic Story of Leon Koen, the First Sephardi Painter from Belgrade: A Symbolist and Admirer of Nietzsche
about his studies. Moreover, he obligated himself to send
them as well some works every six months, promising to
return to Serbia after three years of studies. Such strict
conditions, demanding of an ambitious artist to finish
the five-to-six year course of studies at the Academy in
half the time, caused him much tension and heartbreak.
The first of Koen’s reports, sent to the Ministry on 17
May 1885 immediately after signing the contract, clearly
illustrates this.19
In the winter of 1885–86 Koen once again suffered
from health problems, which made him neglect the
regular report to the Ministry. After receiving a written
warning, he sent the detailed description of his schedule,
from which we can learn the names of his professors. He
mentions Karl Raupp and Gabriel Hackl, students and
successors of the famous Munich painter of historical
scenes, Karl Theodor von Piloty (1826–86). Piloty, who
as the Academy’s director in 1874–86 initiated important
reforms, created huge canvases inspired by historical
events while combining realistic form with theatrical,
artificially arranged compositional solutions. Koen was
himself very much inclined towards this kind of painting,
since he drew his inspiration from literature and the
theater. It seems that he began to work on paintings in
this academic tradition already in the earliest stage of his
studies.20
Despite the period of illness, part of which he spent
at home in Belgrade, and the Ministry’s criticism of
insufficient grades and for not maintaining the schedule,
by August 1886 Koen managed to send the committee his
first completed compositions. These were The Finding of
Moses, The Night, and Djuradj Brankovic, portraying the
figure from Serbian national history, probably inspired by a
theater play which Koen had seen in Belgrade in his early
twenties.21 Of those, today The Finding of Moses (fig. 3)
and Djuradj Brankovic are known only through the black-
and-white reproductions, which show the use of costumes
in order to create an “Egyptian” or “Turkish” atmosphere
for the events they depict.22
During 1887 Koen was still attending the Naturschule,
in the class conducted by Johann Caspar Herterich
(1843–1905), this time achieving much better grades. He
painted his fourth large composition, Hamlet, and by the
Fig. 3. Leon Koen, The Finding of Moses, 1886 (lost)
end of the year began the fifth, King Lear.23 There is not
doubt about his great success in this semester: the Serbian
Minister of Education, after seeing Koen’s new Academy
19 In the report Koen wrote:
“I politely inform Mr. Minister of Education that I’ve received the
documents with the contract and the letter, at which I am honored
to answer the following passages: I have taken my first courses in
the Antique school, related to preparation for the Academy itself.
This school is divided into two semesters, and I am now finishing the
second one, after which I’ll take an exam and continue studying in
‘Naturschule,’ where drawing from natural objects is taught. During
the three years I will be able to complete the mentioned course in
‘Naturschule’ and the course of painting, ‘Malschule,’ which altogether
lasts five semesters. I will gather all my strength, and try to finish
‘Komponirschule‘ as well during the period of the scholarship, although
it is quite impossible, because it usually takes five or six years. A more
detailed description of the studies doesn’t exist, or at least, I couldn’t
find it. But, if Mr. Minister would like to inform himself on the subject
more extensively, I would most politely ask him to contact the rector of
the Academy.
With great respect, 5. (17.) V 1885.
Leon Kojen, student of the Academy”
A r s
(The letter is quoted in Simić-Milovanović, “Slikar Leon Koen”:
393–94).
20 Jovan Sekulić, Minhenska škola i srpsko slikarstvo (The Munich School
J u d a i c a
and Serbian Painting) (Belgrade, 2002), 33–37.
21 Simić-Milovanović, “Slikar Leon Koen”: 398.
22 Šuica, Leon Koen: 1859–1934, 24, 32–35.
23 The choice of subjects seems to confirm Koen’s early enthusiasm
2 0 0 9
about Shakespeare and the importance of the abovementioned series
of lectures by Nikolajević for his artistic development. Unfortunately,
both canvases are lost.
5
 Vesna Adić

report, decided to grant him a scholarship even for the

Fig. 4. Leon Koen, Self-portrait, ca. 1890, oil on canvas, 50 × 40 cm, Jewish
Historical Museum, Belgrade
vacation months.24
As a result of the Ministry’s favorable support of Koen’s
studies, the Academy professors decided to allow him to
enter the Komponirschule even earlier. They also advised
him to ask for a small extra amount to pay for models,
so that he could begin working on serious and elaborate
compositions. 25 However, exactly when the sequence
of beneficial events seemed to assure Koen’s speedier
advancement and secure artistic career, a disastrous turn
of events occurred, one which would prove to be fateful
for the rest of his life and work. The additional amount
requested was interpreted by the Ministry as Koen’s
arrogance and ungratefulness at the time his scholarship
extension was already approved, and the decision was to
refuse it. Koen, however, stubbornly refusing to accept
this decision, wrote several letters of protest expressing
his bitterness, that included the following bold statement:
“In order not to exceed the budget, you impose savings
upon scholarship holders; and what about the Ministers?”26
This sentence closed all doors to further government
support for Koen, and in January 1890 the Ministry
also withdrew the scholarship it had formerly approved.
Deprived of all financial support precisely when he had
the opportunity to succeed at the Academy, Koen suffered
a mental collapse. He was hospitalized in Belgrade from
February until May 1890, when he was released with a

24 Alkalaj, “Leon Koen,” 11. Encouraged by this success, and confronted

with the scholarship’s approaching expiration date, 20 August 201888
Koen courageously asked for the continuation of financial support,
as well as its increase, since he was obliged to pay for models for the
final course, the Komponierschule (Šuica, Leon Koen: 1859–1934, 28).
Along with the request, he submitted his works which were examined by
the commission that included such renowned Serbian painters as Uroš
Predić and Djordje Krstić. Due to their favorable opinion, the Ministry
2 0 0 9

approved the scholarship, but only for one year more and without
increasing the sum. Moreover, he was ordered to return to Serbia
already in the summer of 1889. Due to this, he wrote a new request
J u d a i c a

for the scholarship’s extension, attaching the Academy certificate with

excellent grades and recommendations from Professor Sandor von
Wagner, a disciple of Piloty. In addition he sent seven finished paintings
(Alkalaj, “Leon Koen,” 14) which we are unfortunately as yet unable to
identify. The Ministry once again approved his request.
A r s

Fig. 5. Wilhelm Leibl, Portrait of a Blind Man, 1874, oil on canvas, © 25 Ibid., 15.
Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich 26 Šuica, Leon Koen: 1859–1934, 29.

6
 The Tragic Story of Leon Koen, the First Sephardi Painter from Belgrade: A Symbolist and Admirer of Nietzsche

diagnosis of paranoia. 27 Nevertheless, he managed to

somehow recover during that same year and continue his
studies in Munich in the autumn, with the help of the
small financial support of his brother David.
It was exactly in this period that he painted several
portraits, of which only two have survived, one of them
his Self-portrait (fig. 4). Tending towards freer use of
paint and brushwork, the application of shadows, and
emphasis of the contrast between dark and white areas,
especially on clothes, Koen – possibly feeling free from
the pressures and expectations of both the Academy
and the Serbian Ministry of Education – adopted the
more novel, realistic manner characteristic of the circle
of painters gathered around Wilhelm Leibl (1844–1900)
and Franz von Lenbach (1836–1904), with whom he was
personally acquainted. It seems that the former especially
influenced him, and Koen’s Self-portrait may thus possibly
be compared with similar qualities present in works such
as Leibl’s Portrait of Blind Man of 1867–68 (fig. 5).28
Although achieving good results at the Academy, due
to renewed financial difficulties Koen was again forced to
return to Belgrade in May 1891.29 With no other option
left, he once again wrote the Ministry, asking for the
reinstatement of the scholarship. On 14 June 1891 he
sent an emotional letter, confessing the mental collapse Fig. 6. Leon Koen, Joseph’s Dream (detail), before 1898, oil on canvas,
he had suffered because he had to withdraw from the final 75.5 × 121 cm, National Museum, Belgrade

Komponirschule course, where he had his own studio,

27 Alkalaj, “Leon Koen,” 17.
28 Sekulić, Minhenska škola, 68–69, 74–75. Wilhelm Leibl introduced
modernity into German painting. Interested in Dutch seventeenth-
century painting, upon visiting Paris after 1869 he was influenced
by Gustave Courbet and Edward Manet. In contrast to the Munich
Academy professors still concentrating on historical and literary
subjects, in the late 1870s and early 1880s Leibl started to paint portraits
and scenes from peasant life applying color directly, without preliminary
drawings. His art provides a German parallel to French Impressionism;
and return to the Malschule due to the withdrawal of
government support.30 His request remained unanswered.
Again with the help of his brother David, Koen returned
to Munich and after a repeated failure to have his
scholarship renewed in December 1892 31 he severed
every communication with the authorities in his native
Serbia, continued to live in Munich, and earned his living
by occasional pawning of his paintings. He continued to
A r s

seeAlfred Langer, Wilhelm Leibl (Leipzig, 1961). receive small financial help from his brother as well as from
29 Alkalaj, “Leon Koen,” 17, 19.
Haim Davičo, a fellow Sephardi Jew from Belgrade, who
30 Šuica, Leon Koen: 1859–1934, 29.
J u d a i c a

31 Alkalaj, “Leon Koen,” 19.
32 Bunuševac, “Nekoliko anegdota”: 9. On the importance of the Davičo
family, one of the most prominent Sephardi families in Belgrade that
was active among the Jews and served in the Serbian government, see
at the time served as the Serbian consul in Munich.32
Koen’s artistic development in the period after 1893
is of the greatest importance. Despite his poor material
condition, it is the time when he began painting his most
2 0 0 9

Milica Mihailović, “Dva veka porodice Hajim-Davičo in Belgrade”

(Two Hundred Years of the Haim-Davičo Family in Belgrade), Zbornik significant compositions dedicated to Jewish and universal
jevrejskog istorijskog muzeja, no. 6. 1992, 249–77. themes, including Joseph’s Dream, two versions of Eternal

7
 Vesna Adić

Jew, and Amor Universalis (figs. 6–8).33 He abandoned

the realistic idiom, dark tones, and sharp drawing
characteristic of the academic manner, and turned to
brighter and stronger coloring, softer brush strokes, and
diffuse lighting, which impart an enigmatic atmosphere to
his paintings. These changes are most easily recognizable
in the unfinished cycle The Tragedy and Triumph of Mankind
of which the two canvases known today: Autumn and
Spring (figs. 9–10) will be discussed in detail in the second
part of this article. While in Autumn Koen still employed
darker, muted colors and more academic features, in
Spring, which exists in a few versions, he entered his
second phase and introduced pure, lighter colors in thick
Fig. 7. Leon Koen, Eternal Jew, 1893–1905, coloured crayons on paper,
layers and rough texture attained by using not only the 64 × 90 cm, Jewish Historical Museum, Belgrade
brush, but also by applying paint with knife and fingers.
The dramatic lighting and very daring dissolving of the
form now create an almost expressionistic work.
These new features of Koen’s painting were probably
influenced by innovations in the Munich art scene which
eventually resulted in the formation of the Munich
Secession. Although Koen was not formally a member
of this movement, it is known that he was close to the
circles that established it. Thus, he seemed to have been
personally acquainted with Franz von Stuck (1863–1928)34
and it is possible that he also met Vasily Kandinsky, one
of his students, in von Stuck’s atelier.35 This information
seems to be borne out by the fact that Koen participated
Fig. 8. Leon Koen, Amor Universalis, 1893–1905, oil on canvas, 31 × 47 cm,
alongside the famous Russian painter in the exhibition of National Museum, Belgrade
the Phalanx group in 1902.36
After developing an authentic artistic expression medal for Joseph’s Dream (fig. 6) at the International
during the last phase of his work, between 1893 and 1905, Exposition in Munich.37 Encouraged by this success, he
Koen also won his first international awards and had his decided to also present himself to the public of his native
first single exhibition. In 1897 he was awarded the silver Serbia. Thus, during 1898, while residing for a while in
2 0 0 9

33 All of these paintings have survived and are today in the Jewish Sin (1893) introduced the fin-de-siècle theme of femme fatale; see Franz
Historical Museum and the National Museum in Belgrade. For von Stuck, 1863–1928: Werkkatalog der Gemälde, mit einer Einführung in
additional illustrations see Šuica, Leon Koen: 1859–1934, 52, 54, 58 and seinen Symbolismus von Heinrich Voss (Munich, 1973.)
J u d a i c a

71. They will not be discussed in the framework of this article since they
call for a separate, in-depth study and research.
34 Von Stuck studied at the Munich Academy between 1881 and 1885, and
after 1895 became one of its professors. Among his students, in addition
to Kandinsky, were later famous artists such as Paul Klee and Joseph
A r s
35 Simić-Milovanović, “Slikar Leon Koen”: 419.
36 Šuica, Leon Koen: 1859–1934, 21. Koen’s connection to the Secession
circles is also evident in the high opinion that Fritz von Ostini, the
editor of the secessionist Jugend magazine, apparently had of his art;
Alkalaj, “Leon Koen,” 27.

Albers. In 1892 he was a co-founder of the Munich Secession group and 37 Sekulić, Minhenska škola, 50.
developed Symbolist and Art Nouveau styles. His famous painting The

8
 The Tragic Story of Leon Koen, the First Sephardi Painter from Belgrade: A Symbolist and Admirer of Nietzsche
Belgrade and designing stage sets for the National Theater,
he managed to collect enough financial means to arrange
for the transport of 33 of his works, and in the autumn to
open an exhibition in the National Parliament building.38
Reviews were mostly favorable and Koen was declared a
“new Arnold Böcklin,” whose influence on his painting
was obvious to Belgrade art lovers due to the “Neo-
romantic thematic repertoire and mysterious atmosphere
of his canvases.”39
Although it probably seemed that fame and success
were just a step away from the artist, at that time he was
suffering from serious mental imbalance. Contemporaries
testified that Koen’s mood at the 1898 exhibition was very
unstable, fluctuating between furious arguing to childish
smiling. 40 However, his career was still undergoing a
period of ascendance which resulted in winning one more
silver medal, awarded him at the International Exposition
in Munich exhibition in 1899 for the painting Symphony
of Spring, known today only by means of its sketches
(fig. 11).41
In that period, Koen was married to Josephine
Shimon, a Munich Jewess in whose house he had lived as
a tenant for several years. Although she seemed to offer
him artistic inspiration, according to some testimonies,
she resisted his marriage proposal for several years, which
further undermined his mental health. During their
marriage, when he was hospitalized several times, his wife
was forced to sell some of his paintings in order to cover
the expenses of medical treatment. This was the cause for
38 Alkalaj, “Leon Koen,” 27.
39 Šuica, Leon Koen: 1859–1934, 12. Arnold Böcklin (1827–1901) was
a Swiss Symbolist and Art Nouveau painter trained in Germany and
famous for his mythological, fantastic figures and imaginary classical
architecture, creating a strange fantasy world often relating to mortality
and death. See Katharina Schmidt, Arnold Böcklin (Heidelberg 2001).
40 Alkalaj, “Leon Koen,” 26–27.
41 Sekulić, Minhenska škola, 50. Today two oil sketches for this painting are
in the National Museum in Belgrade (for illustration, see Šuica, Leon
Koen: 1859–1934, 65).
42 Bunuševac, “Nekoliko anegdota”: 9; Alkalaj, “Leon Koen,” 26; Simić-
Milovanović “Slikar Leon Koen”: 400. Much has to be still researched
and learnt about this important relationship in Koen’s life and its
influence upon his artistic development.
43 Alkalaj, “Leon Koen,” 29.
the complete loss of information about a significant part
of Koen’s opus.42
Despite his delicate health, Koen the artist was active
until 1905, thus completing more than twenty years of
an artistic career. After the first Belgrade exhibition, he
participated in the Third Venetian Biennale with the
painting Joseph’s Dream,43 and for the Serbian pavilion
in the World Exhibition in Paris in 1900 he painted The
Turks Kidnap Serbian Maidens for the Harem.44 After 1905
Koen was almost completely incapable of active social life,
which probably meant that his participation in the Fourth
Yugoslav exhibition in Zagreb 1912 (when the canvases
The Heaven and Symphony of Spring were displayed), was
organized by some of his friends.45
Koen died, mentally ill and exhausted, on 15 May
1934 at the age of 75. After his death, a retrospective
exhibition was opened in Belgrade on 16 February 1935
in the art pavilion Cvijeta Zuzorić, showing sixty-three of
his works. Today the whereabouts of only fifteen of them
are known.46
Leon Koen and Nietzschean Philosophy: The
Artist as the Unifier of Apollo and Dionysus
Due to the combination of themes and pictorial idioms
described above, which make Koen until today the only
representative of Symbolism among artists from Serbia,
researchers of his paintings were often keen to find in
them common features of Symbolist art: religious fervor,
mystical symbols, and a fantasy world. However, a closer
44 Šuica, Leon Koen: 1859–1934, 67 (for the illustration, 68).
45 Simić-Milovanović, “Slikar Leon Koen”: 421. Koen suffered a complete
mental collapse during WW I, when his wife abandoned him and his
brother David was executed by the Bulgarians. His family brought him
back to Belgrade, where he stayed in the parental home for a while.
A r s
From 1920 to 1926 he spent most of his time in a Belgrade hospital or
wandered semi-conscious through the city. According to testimonies, on
3 May 1926, when his retrospective exhibition organized by friends was
J u d a i c a
celebrating its opening, Koen walked through Belgrade’s Kalemegdan
fortress, arguing with himself, completely unaware of the event; see Šuica,
Leon Koen: 1859–1934, 23. He lived the last years of his life with the Holy
Bible always in his hands, identifying himself with Jesus Christ, leaving
2 0 0 9
notes throughout the book and bloody marks on the pages that describe
the Crucifixion; Simić-Milovanović, “Slikar Leon Koen”: 400–403.
46 Šuica, Leon Koen: 1859–1934, 8, 23.
9
 Vesna Adić

Fig. 9. Leon Koen, Autumn, 1893–1905, oil on canvas, 180 x 110 cm, National Museum, Belgrade

look into Koen’s interests and recorded statements reveals
this painter’s profound interest in and knowledge of
Nietzsche’s philosophy. As noted earlier, while studying
art at the Academy Koen spent all his free time at the
University of Munich as a part-time student, attending
2 0 0 9
of the cultural heroes of his time, Koen clearly pointed
out just how highly he rated the provocative German
philosopher:
France has a typical representative of the Gallic

lectures in various subjects such as art history, philosophy, race in [Hippolyte] Taine, just as England has
psychology, and physiology.47 Moreover, he translated and decent representatives of the Anglo-Saxon race in
wrote about Nietzsche. Thus, in 1894 Koen published John [Stuart] Mill and [Charles] Darwin, and maybe
J u d a i c a

an essay in the Belgrade literary magazine Ogled as we could say, like the Yugoslavian tribe has it in
an introduction to his translation of excerpts from
Nietzsche’s Also sprach Zarathustra, which appeared in
47 Ibid., 7.
the same publication.48
A r s

48 Leon Koen's, [Untitled Text], Ogled, no. 3 (1894): 93–96; no. 4 (1894):
In the essay, while displaying intimate knowledge 115–17.

10
 The Tragic Story of Leon Koen, the First Sephardi Painter from Belgrade: A Symbolist and Admirer of Nietzsche

Fig. 10. Leon Koen, Spring, 1893–1905, oil on canvas, 51 × 63 cm, Jewish Historical Museum, Belgrade

Njegoš.49 But the work of those great men is only a
wave in the ocean of development – a wave which
cannot provoke that mighty storm that stirs the
depths of the sea […]. The storm that raises those
mighty waves in the sea of progress is Nietzsche.50
In the elite circles of mankind, in which great
spirits and cultural heroes abide, we can recognize
two types of geniuses. The first are those who speed
up the flow of life and give more concrete shape
to the essence of their age. These are the giants
A r s

that embody the perfect and complete ideal of the

The essay shows us as well that Nietzsche seemed previous as well as the contemporary generation.
J u d a i c a

to impress Koen mainly with his elitist theory about They lead the events of the century and crowds
ingenious individuals who lead mankind: follow in the path they have chosen for them. Those

49 Petar Petrović Njegoš (1813–51) was an Orthodox Bishop (Vladika) of 50 Koen in Ogled, no. 3: 94. Since all important works of European science
2 0 0 9

Montenegro and a ruler who transformed his country from a theocracy were translated into German very quickly after they appeared, Koen,
into a secular state. However, his main contribution is as one of the studying in Munich and fluent in German, was capable of following the
most famous of Serbian poets. most important publications, such as those written by the authors he quotes.

11
 Vesna Adić
who go against the flow of their age, who oppose
the spirit of the time and tend to awaken humanity
from its hypnotic dream, stand at the other side.
The first ones are the final link on a cultural chain
of past ages; the second ones are predecessors of the
new era, who lead mankind outside the labyrinth
towards the new cultural epoch which has not yet
begun.51
As noted, Koen’s religious views were not traditionally
Jewish, but rather syncretistic, even pantheistic. During
his conscious and productive years he was constantly
glorifying art, science, emancipation, and – above all –
Nature. Filling out the form for residency in a Munich
police station, under the reference “Religious affiliations”
Koen wrote: “My religion are the Sun, the Moon, the
Stars, and Nature Divine!” 52 He made a similar statement
a few years later when he was introduced to the young
Božidar Nikolajević, an art historian and critic: “Art is
all that matters, my young friend,” Koen told him. “Art
and Nature Divine [...]. All the others are frogs, sparrows
and clerks [...].”53 There is no doubt that Art was the only
thing Koen was living for – not l’art pour l’art, but the type
of Art preached by Nietzsche. The Art which – conducted
by ingenious individuals such as those mentioned in the
passage from his essay – tame its transformative powers;
the Art which leads humanity towards constant struggle
and progress, towards evolution into the Übermensch, and
thus represents the unique meaning of human life. As will
be shown, Koen believed that it was precisely an artist
like himself who was this ingenious individual possessing
the power to tame Art and its transformative powers.
Similarly, Koen’s selections from Zarathustra reveal
which of Nietzsche’s ideas he most readily accepted.
2 0 0 9
51 Ibid.: 93. There are many similarities between these thoughts of
Koen and Nietzsche’s theory of “The Republic of Geniuses.” In his
J u d a i c a
unpublished notes, the philosopher claims ingenious people to be the
only driving force behind the progress of mankind, in whose shadow and
by whose norms common people try to shape their lives. For Nietzsche,
history is nothing but spanning the intervals between the appearances
and activities of Geniuses. That which happens in the meantime is just
A r s
“excited chattering of dwarfs” producing “copies made by unskilled
hands”; Salim Kemal “Nietzsche’s Politics of Aesthetic Genius,” in
12
The few translated pages are excerpted from many and
various chapters throughout the book, which shows that
this specific choice bears a very personal character and
exhibits deep empathy for the selected passages. Koen’s
translations of Nietzsche’s text were often done entirely
arbitrarily, sometimes even by changing the real context
and thus transforming the words of Zarathustra into his
own, personal confession. Many of them explicitly talk
about a battle, a conflict with the milieu, even with the
family, about bitterness over contemporaries, and about
readiness for the biggest sacrifices – even of life – in order
to overcome oneself. In some of the passages, translated
in a very arbitrary manner, we can recognize the very
philosophy of Koen’s life – an endless devotion to artistic
creation, because of which he was often on the borders of
existence: “To work, to create – it is the greatest deliverance
from all the tortures and from life. And the life of those
who create has to go through many painful deaths. It is
exactly such a destiny that their will demands […].54
Koen does not specify which chapters and pages he
is quoting. He merges sentences which are not linked
in the original text, sometimes rather paraphrases than
translates, and does not give equal representation to all
parts of the book. While often skipping over dozens of
pages, he excerpts the greatest number of passages from
the chapter “War and Warriors” as well as from “The
Flies in the Marketplace,” in which Nietzsche criticizes
the foolish nature of the public, which follows “quacks
and charlatans,” while the true values remain out of its
sight. Family discord or lack of understanding by people
around one underline Koen’s choice to translate many
passages criticizing the hypocrisy of the statement “Love
thy neighbor as thyself”. His bitter view of contemporary
society is shown through what he selected from the
Nietzsche, Philosophy and the Arts, eds. Salim Kemal, Ivan Gaskell and
Daniel W. Conway (Cambridge 1998), 261.Geniuses are the only ones
capable of giving some shape to the otherwise meaningless existence of
mankind, by organizing senseless content inside of us into some kind of
artificial systems which have an esthetic dimension; ibid., 260.
52 Simić-Milovanović, “Slikar Leon Koen”: 385.
53 Božidar Nikolajević, Iz minulih dana (From Past Days) (Belgrade 1986),
108–9.
54 Koen in Ogled, no. 4: 115–17.
 The Tragic Story of Leon Koen, the First Sephardi Painter from Belgrade: A Symbolist and Admirer of Nietzsche
chapter “Chastity,” which represents the mockery of
mediocre, submissive, and envious people, and there is
also a translation from the chapter “The Land of Culture,”
which is critical of the contemporary educational system.
It is particularly interesting that Koen adopts Nietzsche’s
discontent with current political systems, considering it
important to translate the sharp criticism of State in the
chapter “The New Idol.”55 At the end of the text, Koen
excerpts two sentences from their context and repeats
them as the essence of the message which Nietzsche brings
to humanity through Zarathustra:
Ready must thou be to burn thyself in thine own
flame; how couldst thou become new if thou have
not first become ashes!
Man is something that is to be surpassed. Dead
are all the Gods, now we desire the Superman
[Übermensch] to live!56
It seems however that Koen most closely accepted
Nietzsche’s vision of the world as a giant organism which
developed through the balanced influence of two opposing
artistic principles, Dionysian and Apollonian. Since,
according to Nietzsche, the contemporary world suffers
from the disturbance of that balance and its development
turned into decadence, it is only an ingenious artist who
is capable of halting this process. Koen’s planned cycle
The Tragedy and Triumph of Mankind, of which only the
paintings dedicated to Spring and Autumn are known
today, illuminates these ideas.57
As a determined atheist and anti-moralist, Nietzsche
denied the existence of any supernatural dimensions of
reality which take care of “the cosmic justice” and give
some sense to human life. Like Arthur Schopenhauer,
whose ideas he eagerly absorbed in his youth, Nietzsche
perceived the world as a cruel place without any deeper
meaning. However, in contrast to the pessimism of
Schopenhauer, who considered complete indifference
55 By doing so he was probably reacting to his own unfortunate experience
with the Serbian Ministry of Education and its refusal to support him.
56 Koen in Ogled, no. 4: 117.
57 Šuica, Leon Koen: 1859–1934, 76–77.
towards the world as the fastest possible solution for
freeing oneself from the chains of reality, Nietzsche
celebrated the possibility of live organisms capable of
creating their own, artificial systems inside the chaotic
world and thus providing the meaning of existence. He
held Nature to be such a self-begotten organism which
emerged from the Primal Unity by the activity of an
unconscious “World Will.” As noted, two opposing
principles direct this energy – the Apollonian and the
Dionysian. While the first is manifested in concrete form,
clear hierarchy, cognitive activity, and individuation, the
other is connected with everlasting transformation, the
state of erotic ecstasy, stepping out from the personal to
collective consciousness, and blurring the border between
the individual and Nature. Typical Dionysian arts are thus
singing and dancing, while those of Apollo are painting
and sculpture, but this division does not prevent either of
these principles from appearing to be represented by means
of the other. It is by the constant overplay of Apollonian
and Dionysian, both of which stand equal before Nature,
that development and improvement of an organism – or
evolution – takes place.58
Adopting such an approach, Nietzsche believed that
all the systems by which men conduct their lives, such as
science, ethics, and religion, are no more than different
appearances of human artistic capabilities. Taken in such
a broad sense, Art is the only thing capable of making life
worth living, but it achieves this goal only if Apollonian
and Dionysian principles manifested in human creativity
are balanced. If one of them prevails, humanity falls into
a state of decadence. Thus, by surrendering completely
to Dionysian lust, it deteriorates into bestiality, and by
devoting itself completely to Apollonian idealism and
individuation it loses the sense of unity with Nature and,
as a result, its life force diminishes.59
A r s
According to Nietzsche, the contemporary world
suffers exactly from this second type of imbalance, caused
J u d a i c a
by repression of the mystical, erotic, and emotional side of
58 Friedrich Nietzsche, The Birth of Tragedy and The Case of Wagner,
2 0 0 9
translated with commentary by Walter Kaufmann (New York, 1967),
33.
59 Ibid., 38, 44–45.
13
 Vesna Adić
human existence in favor of scientific rigidity, accompanied
by Christian demonization of Eros. In order to restore the
state of balance, the world needs the activity of an artist
who alone has an insight into the Primal Unity, since
he is capable of establishing intuitive communication
with the primordial forces of Nature. While resisting the
temptation of surrendering to pessimism, the artist has to
turn to artistic production and tame the Dionysian ecstasy
by means of Apollonian form and symbols. 60 Thus, a
successful work of art, as the result of a combination of the
two, arouses in its viewer esthetic pleasure, which springs
from the same root as erotic sensation; the spectator, by
“consuming” this work of art, becomes filled with a feeling
similar to being in love and thus gathers new strength to
live on. Only the ingenious individuals can succeed in the
reconcilement of Apollo and Dionysus through creation
of beauty which is healthy, life-affirming, and imbued by
the driving force of Eros.61
However, for Nietzsche the terms “sick” and “healthy”
are interchangeable: the organism is healthy only if it can
endure the illness. Just as overcoming a disease strengthens
the organism by developing new antibodies and making
the immune system more efficient, so do artistic geniuses
undermine the old hierarchies in order to build new ones.
Nietzsche applied this theory to his own development
as well, considering it a result of “overcoming” certain
influences – Schopenhauer and Wagner, for example.62
Thus, according to Nietzsche’s approach there are certain
things allowed to geniuses but forbidden to the rest of
society. Thus, certain behavior which might appear as
pathological in others can actually be very useful for the
work and development of ingenious individuals.63
When studying Koen’s biography, one can find
much evidence that he saw himself in the role of such
2 0 0 9
60 Ibid., 38.
61 Martha C. Nussbaum, “The Transfiguration of Intoxication,” in
J u d a i c a
Nietzsche, Philosophy and the Arts, eds. Salim Kemal, Ivan Gaskell and
Daniel W. Conway (Cambridge 1998), 64.
62 Gregory Moore, Nietzsche, Biology and Metaphor (Cambridge, 2002),
122.
63 Ibid.
A r s
64 Simić-Milovanović, “Slikar Leon Koen”: 403.
65 Šuica, Leon Koen: 1859–1934, 43.
14
an ingenious individual. Zora Simić-Milovanović, who
conducted interviews with Koen’s friends and family before
WW II and afterwards published her research, writes:
Leon Koen believed in himself, in some mission
he has on this Earth, and he always distinguished
himself from the others. He was often saying that
“deep inside of every man there is a certain number
of wheels to set different dispositions in motion. I
have a wheel more than the others.”64
Similar statements are recorded elsewhere. For instance,
in a letter to Božidar Nikolajević in1903 Koen wrote:
“I will show the world what a genius I am hiding – the
one which Europe of our days cannot even imagine!”65
Radmila Bunuševac, who collected memories of Koen’s
contemporaries in order to publish a commemorative
article after the death of the painter, discovered that Koen
requested his friends to explicitly acknowledge him as a
genius, and he would be very upset if they hesitated to do
so.66 Moreover, he was well known for creating incidents
– he talked to himself while walking the streets of the
Jewish quarter, would stand up in the theater and yell at
the actors, threw out his one and only patron from the
atelier, spit on his friend and benefactor Haim, threw
a bouquet of roses in the lap of a Bavarian princess, sat
naked in his atelier, and cried aloud if a jury rejected his
paintings. Perceiving his capricious temper through the
prism of contemporary theories about geniuses seemed
to only encourage Koen to consider himself all the more
ingenious.67
Thus it seems that Koen, an enthusiastic reader
of Nietzsche, readily accepted the theory about the
central role of genius in the survival and development of
66 Bunuševac, “Nekoliko anegdota”: 9.
67 Bearing in mind his mental illness, it is of course a challenge to draw the
line between his art, philosophy, and convictions, and his fragile mental
health. However, it is interesting to note the significant similarity
between Koen’s behavior, his interest in Nietzsche’s philosophy, and the
art he created with those of Russian Symbolist painter Mikhael Vrubel
(1856–1910). See Aline Isdebsky-Pritchard, “Art for Philosophy’s Sake:
Vrubel against ‘the Herd,’ ” in Nietzsche in Russia, ed. Bernice Glatzer
Rosenthal (Princeton, 1986), 219–48.
 The Tragic Story of Leon Koen, the First Sephardi Painter from Belgrade: A Symbolist and Admirer of Nietzsche
mankind. With this in mind he planned to paint Aeropag
of Geniuses as the companion piece to the traditional
Last Supper – a decision which coincides with Nietzsche’s
plan to replace religion with the belief of man in his own
creative abilities. Apparently Koen said:
When I finish with all other paintings, I am going
to devote myself to the biggest composition ever
painted. It is going to be an Aeropag of geniuses!
I will show in Versaille, in front of the palace, the
meeting of the geniuses of art, the archangels of the
spirit! I will gather them around the table, just like
in the Last Supper, in the glory of the eternal Sun
which never sets!68
Spring and Autumn
While the plan to paint Aeropag of Geniuses was never
executed, Koen’s existing paintings dedicated to the
subjects of Spring and Autumn also clearly show his deep
involvement with Nietzsche’s philosophy. They belong to
the last phase of Koen’s artistic production (1893–1905),
in which he had also published his translation of
Nietzsche’s Zarathustra. Moreover, we learn from Simić-
Milovanović that at that time Koen was also influenced
by the music of Wagner. In her analysis of the liberation of
form and color, which marked Koen’s work in this period,
she wrote:
He [Koen] led a constant struggle against the use
of dark tones with his professors. His growing pain
and sadness and increasing passion towards the music
of Wagner coincided with his constantly growing
intensity of coloring and brush work, creating an
impression of contortion and scream [emphasis
mine – V.A.].69
68 “Nad grobom velikog slikara Leona Koena otkriven je spomenik” (The
Monument was Uncovered above the Grave of the Great Painter, Leon
Koen), Politika, 25 Oct.1937: 8.
69 Simić-Milovanović, “Slikar Leon Koen”: 402.
70 See, for instance, Maares’ The Ages of Life (1874) or The Golden
Age (1880) (Slobodan Mijušković, Secesija i slikarstvo Leona Koena
[Secession and the Painting of Leon Koen] [Novi Sad, 1972], 105).
Upon completing his art education in Berlin, Hans von Maares lived in
Enthusiasm about Wagner, which characterized the
followers of Nietzsche almost without exception (although
the philosopher later renounced his friendship with
the musician and clearly denied the value of his work),
cannot be a coincidence in the period when Koen was
translating Zarathustra – it just reaffirms the painter’s
status in the intellectual circles woven around Nietzsche’s
philosophy. In this light it is possible, then, to understand
Koen’s growing intensity of coloring and brushwork not as the
result of contortion and scream but, on the contrary, as an
expression of the strong and affirmative flow of life and art
favored by Nietzsche.
With the help of Simić-Milovanović’s research,
conducted while most of Koen’s paintings were still
existent, we know today that between 1893 and 1905 he
produced more than ten copies and sketches of Spring and
Autumn. Those existing today, one of Autumn and three
of Spring (figs. 9, 10–12), are all finished compositions,
oils on canvas, although one of them is entitled Sketch for
the Symphony of Spring (fig. 11). All the researchers agree
that those paintings reflect the influence of the German
painter Hans von Marées (1837–87), especially of his
paintings inspired by human life cycles.70 However, in
view of Koen’s knowledge and appreciation of Nietzsche’s
philosophy, they can be better interpreted as his personal
search for a harmony between Apollonian and Dionysian
principles.
All three versions of Koen’s paintings dedicated to the
subject of Spring have many elements in common (figs.
10–12). They seem to include Apollo appearing in all of
them in a seated position accompanied by a muse to his
left playing the lyre – Apollo’s most common attribute.
The nude female character bending from the right to hand
him flowers seems to be Venus, the goddess of love, beauty,
and fertility. In the foreground in two versions appears a
A r s
Munich between 1854 and 1864, where he was close to society painter
J u d a i c a
Franz von Lenbach. Lenbach took him to Italy where he remained,
with brief interruptions, until the end of his life, copying old masters
and painting scenes of Arcadian nostalgia and classical and medieval
reminiscences. Some of his paintings could be understood in the light
2 0 0 9
of his homosexuality. His work is comparable to those of Puvis de
Chavannes and the English Pre-Raphaelites; see Christian Lenz, et. al.,
Hans von Maares (Munich, 1987).
15
 Vesna Adić
Fig. 11. Leon Koen, Sketch for the Symphony of Spring, ca. 1900, oil on canvas, 74 × 102 cm, National Museum, Belgrade
bust of a dark horned figure recalling a Satyr or Pan who,
as a regular participant in Dionysian bacchanalia, seems
to represent the Dionysian principle, the one opposing
that of Apollo (figs. 10, 12). In the version lacking this
horned figure (fig. 11), the harmony between those two
principles is provided by cupids and animals dancing
together and thus recalling bacchanalia. One of the Spring
2 0 0 9
canvases (fig. 12) includes on the right a figure of a bent,
gray, and bearded old man carrying a scythe, recalling
Death. He is leaving the scene, and thus represents the
J u d a i c a
end of Winter, which brings temporary death to the
vegetation and is now being replaced by the youth and
beauty of Spring, symbolized by love and fertility in the
form of Venus. Sketch for the Symphony of Spring (fig.
A r s
11) also includes a monumental figure painted in dark
16
blue tones creating a silhouette. The figure is lifting its
hand and thus making the same movement as the
Genius of Death in Autumn (fig. 9) lifting the hourglass.71
It is flanked by another dark, hooded figure standing
opposite it.
The spring scene is in all three cases situated on the
seashore, in abundant vegetation, beneath blooming
trees. In the background a round pavilion can be noticed,
as an element of the Arcadian landscape. The atmosphere
of the Spring paintings is calm and cheerful, and colors are
pure, bright, and freely applied, forming a rough texture.
Although disintegration of the form is already taking
71 Mijušković, Secesija i slikarstvo Leona Koena, 105.
 The Tragic Story of Leon Koen, the First Sephardi Painter from Belgrade: A Symbolist and Admirer of Nietzsche
Fig. 12. Leon Koen, Spring, Study, 1893–1905, oil on canvas, 51 × 63 cm, Smederevska Palanka Museum
place, every figure is still clearly defined, maintaining its
independence in relation to its surroundings. By deciding
to include satyrs and the Genius of Death in the depiction
of Spring, Koen clearly emphasized that the Apollonian
principle cannot exist separately from the Dionysian one,
and that Nature rests on the equal importance of the
opposites.
Autumn (fig. 9) seems to be visualizing a similar idea of
harmony, only approaching it from the Dionysian angle. It
reflects a very powerful and dramatic atmosphere, further
emphasized by dark and intense coloring. The scene is
taking place on the riverside at dusk. On the left bank,
the eternal cycling of life is depicted through the figure
of a mother who, confronted with the grim figure lifting
the hourglass over her head, holds a child in her embrace.
On the right bank a dazzling vertigo of figures and drapes
represent the ecstatic unity of individuals and Nature
through the act of Dionysian bacchanalias. Koen himself
left a description of this painting, given here as the most
precise explanation:
This is the part of the cycle Tragedy and Triumph of
A r s
Mankind. The Genius of Death holds an hourglass
in one hand; by the eternal causal laws of Nature,
J u d a i c a
the last moment of life approached – and a sickle
in another hand to mercilessly reap everything in
nature. There is a female figure – the universal
mother. She is the personification of everything
2 0 0 9
ideal, beautiful, and sublime, but still has to go to
the grave. She holds a child in her arms, which
17
 Vesna Adić
stays behind, as a symbol of continuation and
transformation of the eternal life in Nature. On
the other side of the river, as a contrast, the God
Bacchus and Ariadne with their bacchanalias
spread joy, peace, and love, representing the
harmony of eternal life.72
By absorbing the Dionysian principle, participants in
bacchanalias gain strength to peacefully face the merciless
side of Nature. They experience a “metaphysical comfort
that life is at the bottom of things, despite all the changes
of appearances, indestructibly powerful and pleasurable.”73
Finally, such art which successfully unites the Dionysian
world of song and dance with the Apollonian means of
form, color, and composition, is meant to encourage a
similar process in its viewer.
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A r s
72 Šuica, Leon Koen: 1859–1934, 76–77.
18
The innovative elements in Koen’s art – until now
primarily limited to their formal characteristics: the purity
of his color, free treatment of form, and broad usage of
painting techniques – were already known, recognized,
and proclaimed revolutionary in the Serbian painting of
his time. In this article, by analyzing Koen’s work – notably
his Spring and Autumn paintings in relation to Nietzsche’s
philosophy, I tried to show this talented painter, stemming
from the small Jewish quarter of Belgrade, as not only
concerning himself with formal innovations, but also
with contemporary thought and philosophy. This makes
him the only artist in contemporary Serbia to follow the
most challenging European literary trends of his time.
Observation of this part of Koen’s opus in such a manner
emphasizes the significance and complexity of his entire
artistic output and calls for further, in-depth research.
73 Nietzsche, The Birth of Tragedy and The Case of Wagner, 59.