68. Still Life with Apples and Books [1936]

Faithful to classical styles and focusing his creation on a narrow thematic register, the artist Gheorghe Petrașcu created an art of the concrete, which bursts from the reality of the daily life, from the places he visited or from the interaction with people around him. He most often insisted on the home, the intimate universe where we encounter interiors, still lifes, flowers, nudes, and portraits, elements of a universe in the rendering of which the artist found his vocation. Approached in this intimate setting, the motifs, modest in their essence, are treated by the artist in serious interpretations and in chromatic brilliances, qualities that ennoble the surfaces of his canvases. An admirable master of colour, the artist constructed directly in colour, and, under his brush, matter acquired a particular consistency and mineral effects, also revealing a strong tactile instinct. One of the favourite genres of his mature period, responding to his preference for frozen reality, was the still life. Diverse and academic in terms of its compositional arrangement, this genre included in its repertoire leitmotifs close to the painting studio space - books, flowers, jugs, fruit bowls, pots, tins, jars with brushes, etc. - wrapped by the artist in a precious, sculptural colour scheme. (GM)

References

OPRESCU, George, „Gheorghe Petrașcu”, Ed. Meridiane, București, 1963. FLOREA, Vasile, „Gheorghe Petrașcu”, Ed. Meridiane, București, 1989.

Dimensions

width 37 cm, height 25.5 cm, custom 25,5 × 37 cm

Description

oil on cardboard, signed and dated upper left, with blue, "G. Petrașcu, (1)936"

Research information

The work was part of the 23rd Venice Art Biennale, 1942. The work participated in the "Gheorghe Petrașcu" Exhibition from the Museum of Art of the Socialist Republic of Romania, Bucharest, 1972, held to celebrate 100 years from the birth of the painter, and it is reproduced in the exhibition catalogue under the cat. 165, under the title "Old Books".

Dating

1936

PROVENANCE

the historical collection of Ioana Fortuna (Crainic) Cojan, daughter of the writer Nichifor Crainic.

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