Nikola Arsenović

Nikola Arsenović
Self-portrait
Born	1823 Retfala, Kingdom of Slavonia, Austrian Empire (now Croatia)
Died	July 18, 1887 (aged 64–65) Belgrade, Kingdom of Serbia (now Serbia)
Citizenship	Austrian, Serbian
Occupation(s)	tailor, illustrator
Known for	Ethnography of Yugoslavia

Nikola Arsenović (Serbian Cyrillic: Никола Арсеновић, IPA: [nǐkola ǎrsɛːnɔʋit͡ɕ], 1823 – July 18, 1887) was a Serb designer and illustrator of folk costume; being posthumously dubbed a "Yugoslav ethnographer". A tailor by profession, he started illustrating peasant clothing while traveling the lands after having left his family and shop due to unknown reasons. The Ethnographic Museum in Belgrade acquired most of his work, the rest having been bought by various painters.

He was born in Retfala, near Osijek, in 1823,^[1] the area being part of the Kingdom of Slavonia of the Austrian Empire (now part of Croatia).

He finished primary school in Osijek, and then decided to become a tailor.^[2] As a youngster, he travelled to Pest and Vienna, to perfect the craft, and also further to Paris and in Germany.^[2] He was away for 7 years, then returned, settling in Vukovar, where he married and opened a large tailor shop with eight workers.^[2] Apart from peasant (or "national") clothing, he also tailored for military officers, clergy and citizens.^[2]

He died in Belgrade, on July 18, 1887.^[1] He was a Yugoslavist, and called himself a Yugoslav.^{[citation needed]}

• Nikola Arsenović (1930). Југословенска народна ношња. Етнографски музеј у Београду.

• Tatjana Zec; Bratislava Vladić-Krstić (2004). Serbian folk costumes: From the Album of Nikola Arsenović. Ethnographic Museum.
• Ljiljana Gavrilović (2004). Costumes from the Balkan Peninsula : the fine arts of Nikola Arsenović. Etnografski Institut SANU. ISBN 978-86-7587-030-2.
• Ljiljana Gavrilović; Dragana Radojičić (2006). Yugoslav ethnographer Nikola Arsenović. Srpska akademija nauka i umetnosti, Etnografski in-t. ISBN 9788675870340.

• Gavrilović, Ljiljana (2004). Балкански костими Николе Арсеновића (PDF). Etnografski institut SANU. ISBN 978-86-7587-030-2.
• Gavrilović, Ljiljana (2006). A Yugoslav Ethnographer Nikola Arsenović (PDF). Etnografski institut SANU. ISBN 86-7587-034-5.