67. Sunday Market [anii '20]

Samuel Mützner is one of the most poetic Romanian impressionists, formed directly from the prestigious Giverny workshop. A passionate traveler, he worked in France, Japan, Morocco, the Caribbean, and South America, before returning to Romania. Although he always remains a "painter of light," each stage of creation brings a different temperature of colors and a different valence of everyday life. After returning to the country in 1920, the activity of the nearly four decades that followed can be defined as the artist's autochthonous period. The landmark event of this period is his 1923 marriage to painter Rodica Maniu, whose own artistic inclinations for the Romanian village also awaken for Mützner attraction to the indigenous subject. Thus, Mützner enters a mature phase in which he filters exotic experiences through the sensitivity of his birthplace, Șopârlița, a village on the banks of Oltețului. After 1920, he tackles predominantly rural themes, fairs, villages, and scenes from popular life, represented with the spontaneity of a painter accustomed to observing the fast lights of foreign streets and ports. The work at hand falls within Mützner's autochthonous creation period and represents a rural fair, captured in full animation, inspiring vivacity and freshness. The artist captures the light filtered through dust through an open chromatic palette and suggests the hustle and bustle of the crowd through dynamic brushwork. The spots of immaculate white color, or which take on shades of blue, of the lily revive the composition, and the silhouettes of the characters are naturally integrated into the decor. Thus, the entire composition gains spontaneity and veracity. (L.M.)

References

MARIAN, Rodica, "Samuel Mützner. In the Footsteps of Claude Monet", University of Bucharest Publishing House, 2021 ANDREESCU, Viorica, "Samuel Mützner", Meridiane Publishing House, 1974

Dimensions

width 30 cm, height 25 cm

Description

oil on cardboard, signed lower left, in black, "S. MÜTZNER"

Dating

anii '20

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