Pavle Simić was born in Novi Sad into a merchant family. He gained his first knowledge about the art painting from Alojz Kastanj, an immigrant from Italy, who had his workshop in Novi Sad. However, as early as in 1837, Simić was enrolled at the Vienna Academy, where he stayed for five years. In this period, the Academy was led by L. Kupelwieser and J. Führichs, who were completely dependent on the artistic views of F. Overbeck, the main advocate of the German Nazarene painting. The artistic ideal of these painters was the revival of Christian art through the return to the old German painting art (A. Dürer) and, which is characteristic of Overbeck, the return to the Italian Renaissance painting (Perugino,
Raphael). In addition to these artists who have decisively influenced the formation of Simić in the field of his church painting art, he demonstrated a particular inclination for the work of Peter Kraft, Franz Eybl and other leading personalities of Viennese Biedermeier art. Their works have contributed to the formation of Simić as a portraitist and historical painter.
It is known that in his pre-academic period, Simić had resided first in Banat, where he painted the composition Founding of village Neuzina (1835), and in Sombor he portrayed the Sombor priest (vicar) Avram Maksimović (1837). Also, his older brother Petar who was a merchant lived nearby in Novi Bečej.
In the making of one of his first iconostasis in Kuveždin in 1849, Simić’s later tendency to model the face and mark the presented figures with a certain stamp of exceptional sensitivity already came to the fore. As it was later observed, it is precisely this ability of his, the ability to use his characters in a gentle and almost humble manner to inspire lofty feelings, which had recommended him from the start as a church painter. Indeed, after Kuveždin, Pavle Simić received a multitude of orders. He first worked in Šabac and Futog in 1855-1858, in Senta from 1859 to 1862, in Novi Sad in 1862, the same year in Bašaid and in 1864 in the church at the Almas cemetery in Novi Sad, 1866 in Glina, 1869 in Orahovica 1869/1873 in Sombor, in 1875 in Zemun.
It is also emphasized that the recent cleaning of Simić’s icons refuted the earlier impression that they were “bathed in warm ocher nuances” which happened after the conservation works on one of the most beautiful iconostases in Senta, where the cold hues of Nazarene purple, yellow and green resurfaced.
The experience he had gained during the work on ecclesiastical compositions was useful to Simić in his work on paintings with historical content as well. The most important of his work on this theme is certainly The May Assembly in 1848, subsequently painted in 1849, in Kuveždin monastery.
During his long career of painting that stretches over four entire decades, Pavle Simić had painted, in addition to several hundred religious paintings, a significant number of works of secular content, primarily portraits which showed, at least the best of them, his true artistic capabilities. The list of his registered preserved portraits includes over seventy confirmed works. Some of the most popular are: Portrait of journalist Teodor Pavlović (1840), Portrait of vicar Trifunovic (1843), two portraits of a married couple Probojčević (1844), Woman in Serbian National Costume, Portrait of vicar Procopius Grujiћ and his wife Agrippina, small Portrait of Stana Aleksić, the artist’s mother, Portrait of Mrs. Mladenović, one of the masterpieces of the entire Serbian Romanticism, and many others.
For details about the life and work of Pavle Simić see: O. Mikic and L. Šelmić, Opus of Pavle Simić (1818-1876), Catalog, Gallery of Matica Srpska, Novi Sad, 1979. pp. 19-45, 90; D. Medaković, Serbian Art in the 19th Century, Belgrade, 1981. pp. 115-132; M. Jovanovic, The Serbian Church Architecture and Painting of Recent Times, Belgrade-Kragujevac, 1987. pp. 68-69, 71-74, 78, 81, 84, 86, 118, 134.
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