115. Mother's Baby [1922]

Approaching themes and topics with a profound humanist nature, Rudolf Schweitzer-Cumpăna is inscribed in the history of Romanian visual arts as a true painter of the village and the local peasant. The childhood spent in the middle of nature, in the rustic atmosphere from Cumpăna, will transpose in an assiduous study of the life of the villagers of Argeș. The artist will transpose faces, ports, gestures and traditions in a series of frescoes dedicated to rural life. Among his main themes there are motherhood, work and care of the household or housework, transcribed in landscapes, portraits or genre scenes. The organic need to express in front of the easel will manifest almost incessantly - the artist works sometimes four to five works a day. The hustle and bustle and at the same time the quiet of rustic life is painted through his specific plastic language, by means of expression which undeniably enrich the artist's themes. Rudolf Schweitzer-Cumpăna uses powerful contrasts and relies on the incandescence of colour. He transposes his states of mind in intense light and shape games and reveals the revealing effect of colour laid directly on the canvas. He uses generous, rich paste, which he puts in harmonious touch-lines in fast, well-defined rhythms. He does not idolise the image of the peasant, but presents the simple, ordinary man, with his soul's anxieties and daily concerns. The drama of the artist's chromatic expressivity is accentuated by his realist vision. Rudolf Schweitzer-Cumpăna adheres, particularly at the time of the conception of this work, to the traditionalist principles of interwar painting. Unlike the first work, which appeared under the seal of motherhood in 1921, the present work is given a much brighter universe, and the tones used suggest placing the characters outdoors, perhaps even in the courtyard of the household. He sees the same tender image of the mother who holds her baby in her arms, realised by expressionist means and powerful contrasts.

References

BARBOSA, Octavian, "Dicționarul Artiștilor Români Contemporani" ("Dictionary of Romanian Contemporary Artists"), Meridiane Publishing House, Bucharest, 1976. IONESCU, Radu, "Rudolf Schweitzwer-Cumpăna", Rudolf Schweitzer-Cumpăna Foundation, Bucharest, 2003.

Dimensions

width 59 cm, height 82 cm, custom 82 × 59 cm

Description

oil on cardboard, signed and dated upper left, in brown, "R. SCHWEITZER-CUMPĂNA, (1)922"

Dating

1922

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