82. Rose Garden [anii '30]

The twilight of life finds Tonitza surrounded by canvases that abound with bouquets or vases of flowers. The artist does not reproduce nature, but composes a well-studied ode dedicated to floral elegies and models in paste, energetically wielding the knife, carnations, marshmallows, chrysanthemums, roses or wildflowers. His biography intertwines with the creative element, so we will identify for the first time painting dedicated to flowers in the joint exhibition "N. N. Tonitza - Ștefan Dimitrescu", from January-February 1920. However, the fervor of the elegies dedicated to nature will be known also around 1935-1937, when the painter will move his creative studio to Durău Monastery, in Neamț. Tonitza will arrive here for three consecutive summers, with his students from the Academy of Fine Arts in Iași. Nature incites the creative spirit of the artist and remains as one of the main muses of his opera throughout the years. The "landscape" exits imposed by the German school, in the surroundings of Munich, in Dachau, the creative camps at Durău or the discovery of Dobrogea and Balcic will be reflected in a long series of works dedicated to nature and the exterior space, but also through the adoption of a different chromatic palette or extended exercises dedicated to the representation of light. Tonitza's flowers are the flowers that have recurrently appeared in the works of many Romanian artists throughout time. From Petrașcu's marshmallows to Aman's carnations, the history of Romanian art overflows with floral themes transposed onto canvas, to which their authors attribute much deeper meanings. Most of the works resulting from the artist's incursions at Durău, Mangalia, or Balcic can be admired in the exhibitions of "The Group of Four", but also in personal exhibitions. Creating floral compositions will not be, therefore, a practice foreign to Tonitza, but will become a theme addressed recurrently, developed and adored by the nature-loving painter.

References

ȘORBAN, Raoul, ”Tonitza”, Meridiane Publishing House, Bucharest, 1973. PELEANU, Georgeta, ”The N.N. Tonitza Exhibition”, Bucharest, 1964.

Dimensions

width 24.5 cm, height 33.5 cm

Description

ulei pe carton, signed top right, in black, "Tonitza"

Dating

anii '30

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