46. By the Lake

As early as his first individual exhibition (Romanian Athenaeum, 1900), critics recognised a certain propensity for poetry in his painting, both as nomination and as execution – twilight or nocturnal landscapes. Petrașcu's lyrical predilections were preserved, and his passion for the romantics Byron and Eminescu (Theodor Enescu, p. 165) was felt mainly in the plastic interpretation of the body of works of the latter, as Petrașcu painted while inspired by "The Fourth Letter" in 1897. As in that work, in later mature creations, Petrașcu acquired a profoundly romantic scenery, therefore recursively symbolist: the remote castle, the lake, the twilight or the nymph. In fact, this latter figurative element extended Petrașcu's affinity towards a symbolic theme: the female nude and the variants that originate therefrom justify to a great extent the present work, which is undoubtedly tributary to these lyrical propensities of Petrașcu. This oil painting presents in the foreground an original reinterpretation of a pseudo-mythological scene, from the set of Symbolism, in which a suite of characters is found on the shore of the lake, accompanied by an animal presence, another profoundly symbolic note. Analysing the onomastics of the works exhibited by Petrașcu at that time (in individual exhibitions or in those of the Artistic Youth), we find that one of the artist's interests moved to the time of the day, the light and the position of the sun being reminiscent of Impressionists – "September Rays", "September Evening", "Evening in Mangalia" or "Evening Impression" being some of the most eloquent works painted in those years.

References

CONSTANTINESCU, Paula, SCHOBEL, Doina, "Expoziția de pictură G. Petrașcu" [catalog], Muzeul de Artă al R.S.R., București, 1972
COSTESCU, Eleonora, "Gheorghe Petraşcu", Editura Meridiane, Bucureşti, 1975

Dimensions

width 80.5 cm, height 65 cm, custom 80,5x65

Description

oil on canvas, signed and dated lower right, in brown, "G. Petrașcu, (1)904"

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