56. Brebu Landscape [cca. 1908]

In the summer of 1908, Ștefan Luchian arrived in Brebu with one of the first cars of the era, belonging to the rower Moser. Moser was a friend of Ernest Cocea, the husband of the artist's cousin, Paulina Cocea. Accompanied by the Cocea family, Luchian would undertake, summer by summer, itineraries for reflective-cultural purposes in Constanța, Poiana in Ialomița, Techirghiol, Bărăgan, Brebu or Moinești. From the moment of his discharge from Pantelimon Hospital in 1901, the artist will be inseparable from the family who takes him into their care until the end of his life. In Brebu, the travelers rent several rooms and a kitchen within the monastery. The courtyard of the place of worship and the hills from Lunca Doftanei will serve as atelier to the painter who, in full maturity of his artistic skills, will create some of his most significant works here. The beauty of the landscapes, the warm green of the trees and the azure blue of the sky will serve as inspiration for Luchian for works such as "The Fountain of Brebu", "The Monastic Kitchen" or "The Tower of Brebu". Over a period of just a few weeks, the artist has created over twenty pastel landscapes. Pastel facilitated the lyrical transposition of nature, maintaining the chromatic ranges found in the landscape. The arabesques of the trees or of the leafage and the spiritual tranquility of the rural panoramas contributed to the perfection of the art of pastel in Luchian's work and led to the fulfillment of the creative act in the middle of nature. The artist now reserves some involvement by cropping or enlarging the foreground according to his own beliefs. In a letter he drafted in Brebu, Luchian confessed: "I am very satisfied and I work with such love as I do not remember ever having worked. But only I know how hard I can set a landscape... if it were not for the splendor of nature to refresh me, I would no longer move". We find in his words the relentless love for art and nature, but also the regret and anxiety in the face of the unknown and the relentless disease that increasingly took over his body.

References

DRĂGUȚ, Vasile, "Luchian", Meridiane Edition, Bucharest, 1968. LASSAIGNE, Jacques, "Ștefan Luchian", Meridiane Edition, Bucharest, 1972. CEBUC, Alexandru, "Luchian", Official Monitor Edition, Bucharest, 2008.

Dimensions

width 44 cm, height 50 cm

Description

pastel on cardboard, signed lower left, in brown, "Luchian"

Dating

cca. 1908

PROVENANCE

Dr. Leon Daniello's collection.

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