Introduction
Jovan Stergević ( real name; c. 1780-1841) was a Serbian iconographer who worked in Principality of Serbia.
Biography
Most icons of the old churches in Kragujevac are the work of zograf (painter) Jovan Stergević (sometimes also spelled Sterijević), best known by his nickname Janja Moler, who left Old Serbia in the early 1820s and settled with his family at Kragujevac. There he earned the trust of Milos Obrenovic who employed him as his court artist and commissioned him to paint his foundation, the Church of the Holy See.
He painted many iconostasis and icons in various churches throughout Serbia, such as the Topčider Church, Soko Banja, Smederevska Palanka, Osipaonica, Jagodina, Savinca, Pozarevac, and others. The iconostases in the Wooden church of Brzan (built in 1822) and the Church of Archangel Gabriel in Bagrdan (built in 1833) were painted Jovan Stergevic.
It is supposed that some icons of the same churches belong to Janja's sons Mihailo, Nikola, and Jovan (Jr.). Nikola died before his father (before 1841), but his brothers Mihailo and Jovan continued to occupy themselves with their father's business, signing their icons as the Molerović brothers. Probably the brothers lived in Kragujevac until 1842, after which they moved to Belgrade.
Other places where Janja also painted: The Church of Nakučani (1824-1825), Rukumija (1829), Ramaća, Ivkovački Prnjavor, Manastirka, Čačak, Lozovik (1831-1832), Blagoveštenje Rudničko (1834), Brus (1836), Knjaževac (1838), Drač (1839), Voljavče (1840), Jagnjilo and Pridvorica (1841).
One of his disciples was Zograf Sterija Jovanović Moler, whose signature was identified on one of the icons of the Old Church in Kragujevac.