83. On the Câmpinița

The artist introduced himself to the world as a creator of pictorial melodies, which he dedicated to his country. He pleaded for the honest feelings and advocated for rendering the nature of his homeland in a deeply purified and pictorial manner, synthesised through artistic fascination. From the French peasant, whom he studied amid the Barbizon group, to the man of the Romanian village, Grigorescu whetted his brush, dipped it in the country’s history, and energetically placed it on his canvases. He rendered immortal the characters, spirits, and the atmosphere he encountered in his journeys undertaken for artistic purposes. Studied closely, observed while performing his daily duties, the peasant is an inexhaustible source of pictorial motifs in the artist’s work. He had no interest in sketching particular characters, which is why he often captured female peasants in profile, during their day-to-day activities, without acknowledging the presence of the omniscient artist. Female characters enjoy particular attention in Grigorescu’s work, and it is often captured looking afar, spinning flax, sitting by the hearth, or genuinely walking into barnyards. The artist’s peasant women are in deep communion with nature, in some special peace of mind, merged in the landscape. The graceful strokes and the subtle, almost ethereal shades, present the protagonist from Valea Doftanei in a relaxed posture, in the middle of the valley, surrounded by trees, animals, and hills, held in the warm hug of summer, with her ever-present red scarf on her head, in stark contrast with the fresh green of the grove. A theme that the artist often returns to, which became a leitmotif of his entire work, the female characters occurs as a representative for an entire social category, assigned to the picturesque realm. Grigorescu relies on a revelation of the fine details of the face and of the folk costume specific for his pastoral muse, captured at a time of utmost concentration, while she carries out her daily activity, untroubled by the outdoor environment. Oftentimes, the titles assigned by the artist to his paintings indicate his characters’ social status: "Peasant Woman", "Clerk’s Wife"; their occupation: "Sewing", "Peasant Woman Spinning Yarn", "Peasant Woman Reading"; their geographical place: "Wallachian Woman", "Gypsy Woman from Ghergani"; or various aesthetic particularities: "Fair Woman", "A Flower Among Flowers". The artist’s meetings with his protagonists occurred during Grigorescu’s trips to Rucăr, on the Dâmbovița Valley, to Câmpina, Ghergani, in Buzău or Moldova. In his paintings, the peasant woman loses her specific attributes, and acquires new virtues, impersonating feelings of love or maternity, or assuming the role of personification of the season in which she was painted, thus becoming an allegory. Constructed in agreement with the particular stages of Grigorescu’s creation, his paintings of peasant women see pinnacle stages, as well as less prolific times; dissonant tones and stark contrasts, idyllic colour treats, or ethereal shades fading in the fatality of the white period. (D.C.)

References

VLAHUȚĂ, Alexandru, "Pictorul Grigorescu - Viața și opera lui" ("The painter Grigorescu - His life and works"), Alexandru Vlahuță, Bucharest, 1910. OPRESCU, George, "Nicolae Grigorescu", Meridiane Publishing House, Bucharest, 1963. CEBUC, Alexandru, "Grigorescu", Monitorul Oficial, 2017.

Dimensions

width 45 cm, height 25 cm, custom 25 × 45 cm

Description

oil on wood, signed bottom right, in red, "Grigorescu"

Research information

The reproduction of the work is included in "Pictorul N.I. Grigorescu - Viața și opera lui" ("Painter N.I. Grigorescu - His Life and Work", Alexandru Vlahuță, Casa Școalelor Publishing House, Bucharest, 1910, on page 68. The work is reproduced in the monography "N. I. Grigoresco", Al. Vlahuță, Imprimerie Socec, Bucharest, 1911, French edition, on page 177.

PROVENANCE

Alexandru Vlahuță historical collection.

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