21. Peonies [1920-1925]

With a well-established artistic technique and an openness to exploring artistic approaches specific to the time - realism, impressionism, neo-impressionism, and more, Ion Theodorescu-Sion stands out as an important figure in interbellum Romanian painting. He experiments with great courage, combining the lessons learned from his teachers, George Demetrescu Mirea and Jean-Paul Laurens, with the strong influences he discovers in museums - from Gustave Courbet and Renoir, to Cézanne and Derain. What the artist leaves behind is a varied body of work, betraying a continuous search for new forms of expression and an ever-open spirit towards innovation. The painting "Peonies" surprises with a loose brushstroke, where color strokes, predominantly placed horizontally, slightly oblique, create a sense of dynamics and movement. These strokes outline the leaves, the background, and in places, the jar, while the peony flowers break this horizontal rhythm through a broader game of directions and shapes. In this work, we no longer find the clear and rigorous construction from the painting "Vase with carnations" (circa 1923), where the outlines were precise and the strokes faithfully followed the way light shapes the volume. In the case of carnations, Sion demonstrates a special interest given to order and structure, a direct influence of Cézanne's art. Being a work that falls in the period 1920-1925, before his departure to Italy, "Vase with carnations" belongs to a period of search, during which the artist explores multiple variations of the theme of still nature. Some works from this period are more dynamic and expressive, others more poetic and introspective, but all betray his concern for deciphering the geometric forms of nature and integrating traditional Romanian motifs - vessels, jars, embroideries - implicitly the desire to express national specificity. We also observe in the case of "Peonies" such a quest. Here Sion narrows the frame, choosing to leave out of the composition any decorative motifs. Thus, the peonies become the central point of the work, and the artist seems especially interested in their essence - their shape, rhythm, and color. This choice of a narrow frame illustrates the desire to bring the subject itself into the foreground, while experimenting with the composition, brushstroke, and rendering of forms.

References

PAVEL, Amelia, "Ion Theodorescu-Sion", Meridiane Publishing House, Bucharest, 1967.

Dimensions

width 65 cm, height 49.5 cm

Description

oil on cardboard, signed lower left, in black, "TSion"

Research information

The artwork participated in the exhibition "The Bouquet of Flowers in Romanian Painting from Private Collections", Cotroceni National Museum, Bucharest, June 4 - August 2, 2015.

Dating

1920-1925

PROVENANCE

Livia and Mircea Deac Collection.

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