28. Flower Girl

Continuing the tradition initiated by his predecessors, Camil Ressu infuses his work with social themes and often dedicates his canvases to colorful headscarves and baskets of flowers. Though his inspiration largely draws from rural subjects and continually aims to perfect the portrayal of monumental physiognomies, in this instance he focuses on the expressiveness of the face and the emotion conveyed through the delicate strokes of the character's outfit. A keen observer of the reality around him, he will extract subjects from everyday life and translate them into his own artistic language. As a painter who guides his creations under the auspices of realistic art, Ressu throws himself into deciphering human types with apparent ecstasy. Interested in the individual traits of his models, he analyses their gestures and psychology in a comprehensive study preceding the actual creation. He often incorporates, in addition to the face that becomes his leitmotif, hands, through which he shapes a psychological portrait of undeniable depth. He focuses on the balance between line and color and the effects of light and shadow. In the work at hand, he opts for neutral tones: white and beige predominate, highlighting the protagonist's dark complexion. Notable are the few color accents crowning the ebony black hair, as well as the apron with rosy and blue spots, or the beads that adopt the same tonal variations. Ressu, a gifted human observer with impressive drawing skills, portrays the body in a cropped manner, captured from the waist up, with bent knees shyly pulled towards the bust area. His body of work presents a variety of types, ranging from peasants and workers, flower girls or children caught bathing, to artists and repeat-appearing muses. From pencil sketches to oil canvases, his works become monumental through their eloquent technique, with the protagonists foreshadowed as central characters in his universe.

References

ENESCU, Theodor, ”C. Ressu”, Meridiane Publishing, Bucharest, 1984.

Dimensions

width 49.5 cm, height 61.5 cm

Description

oil on cardboard, signed at the bottom left, with black, "C. Ressu"

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