81. Boulean on the road (Snowdrop) [1895-1900]

In the work representing the interior of Grigorescu's Parisian workshop around 1867, at 59, Rue de Seine, there is an anatomical model of a cow, probably in plaster. The presence of this didactic object among the painting utensils reveals a stage of studying animal anatomy in the workshop, complementary to working live, with the model in front. It is precisely the period when the young artist in full training alternated winters spent in Paris, with long stays at Barbizon and Marlotte (spring, summer, autumn, 1863-1869) painting in plein air, living and evolving within the artistic community there. In the capital he worked in the workshop, revisited colleagues from the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, visited exhibitions and frequented the Louvre for study and copies. The genre of landscape intertwined with rural images and implicitly with animal art was at the center of the realistic creation of the Barbizon School, contributing to the considerable interest that the French School of the 19th century showed for animal art. In Barbizon, Grigorescu's path intersected not only with the personality of Jean-François Millet (whose house he frequented) but also with that of Millet's friend, the excellent animal artist, Charles Jacque (1813-1894). He had a workshop in Barbizon on Grande Rue, but also in Paris on Boulevard de Clichy, Grigorescu's neighbourhood since 1875. From around 1867, the animal sculptor Antoine-Louis Barye (1795-1875) was also established in the famous colony of painters, his workshop was also on Grande Rue, near Millet. On the edge of the Fontainebleau forest, at Thomery (Château de By) was established Rosa Bonheur (1822-1899), a recognized and awarded animal painter, whose workshop was visited in 1863 by Empress Eugenie. The Romanian artist evolves in this universe. He takes over the rural themes, but not the style and the invoice of the painting of the masters mentioned. He finds the themes in his home world of the time, but in a different note. He observes them and records them in realistic vision studies and drawings, then transfigures them into the painting of the white period, when they become myths and symbols of our 19th century identity. The theme of cattle - the artist's favorite animal, studied extensively in nature and in the workshop - becomes through the theme of the oxen cart, an emblem of Grigorian work, but also a national symbol. The present painting is a study of summer light and animal study at the same time, executed by a master contemporary with Impressionism, but initially formed at the school of realism. Through an inside knowledge of the creative approach, Alexandru Ciucurencu perfectly defined the identity of Grigorescu's painting, admiring his "wonderfully endowed" eye: "He knew how to paint the air, the atmosphere of our lands, using those finely nuanced grays in the whole spectrum of the sun. He knew how to give depth to the plans, not through effects of linear perspective, but through tonal effects, through the construction and pictorial composition of the painting." (Al.Ciucurencu, N. Grigorescu, in Jianu, Beneș, 1957, p. 176). The sure handling of the painting, the masterly intertwining of the colored touches in diluted shades, like watercolor, the science of rendering the solar moment, make this work the expression of the mature Grigorescu style of the white period and the way the artist worked: independent animal studies were executed both for themselves and for more complex paintings that brought together different genres of painting: landscape, animal element, human element. The painting is laid on a canvas of French manufacture, as the master used to do.

References

Costina Anghel, Mariana Vida, GARM, Repertoire of Modern Romanian Painting. 19th Century, vol. II, letters F-H, second edition, National Art Museum of Romania, Bucharest, 2022. Barbu Brezianu, Nicolae Grigorescu, Ed. Tineretului, Bucharest, 1959. Chantal Georgel, The Forest of Fontainebleau. A natural size workshop [exhibition catalog], Musée d'Orsay, Paris, 2007. Ionel Jianu, V. Beneş, Testimonies about N. Grigorescu, critical anthology, State Publishing House for Literature and Art, Bucharest, 1957. Remus Niculescu, Nicolae Grigorescu, Catalog of, Art Museum of the RPR, Bucharest, 1957. G.Oprescu [- R.Niculescu], N.Grigorescu, vol.I, II, Meridiane Publishing, Bucharest, 1961,1962. Francisc Şirato, Grigoresco, Editions de la connaissance, Brussels, 1938. A.Vlahuţă, The painter N.I.Grigorescu. His life and work, edition of the Casa Şcoalelor, Socec & Co Workshops, Bucharest, 1910.

Dimensions

width 46 cm, height 27 cm

Description

oil on canvas, signed lower left, in red, "Grigorescu"

Dating

1895-1900

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