24. Girl Inside [1926-1928]

Usually, the model merges with characters from the artists' biographies, so in the transition from the real world to canvas or cardboard, the model will be allowed to step both in the workshop and in the painter's home. Located beyond truthful rendering and ecstasy in front of the motif, Nicolae Tonitza will capture his muses in the bedroom, sitting on a chair, stretched out on the couch; depicted frontal, profile or even from the back. The artist has the ability to express the expressiveness of the body regardless of the pose in which his model poses. The result of numerous studies conducted on the model will result, at Tonitza, in a special ability to penetrate the inner universe of the model and to highlight feelings such as loneliness and sadness. We also note, in the work presented here, the specificity of illustrating the face devoid of the presence of pupils; black hair, cut short and the crossing of hands above the thighs. The mark of his own style will undoubtedly remain the unique way of rendering the pupils. We will discover here the small black, brown or blue points in which the painter includes an entire universe. Most of the time, as Barbu Brezianu noted, Tonitza superimposes two or three shades, previously not mixed (black over gray or blue; brown over green) thus achieving the final result - "angels with azure dilated eyes", as Perpessicius observed. After acquiring the precepts of Munich's academism and the teachings of Fine Arts from Iasi, the artist will master human anatomy and will take over the thematic in his creation. The work here, titled by Tonitza himself on the back of the painting "Study for a portrait", participated in the "N.N. Tonitza" exhibition organized at the National Art Museum in Bucharest in 1964. The protagonist could be either one of his daughters or a generalized muse. Illustrated on the bed, seated, with hands clasped, carefully positioned on the upper part of the limbs, the protagonist stands out with her jet black hair and gray dress, which falls above the knees and contrasts strongly with the bright red background. Representative of the late 1920s, when the artist had already assumed the necessary technique for portraying faces and bodies in his creation, the work presented here reveals the interest in line and color. The work was also included, over time, in several reputable private collections.

References

DEAC, Mircea, "The Nude in Romanian Painting", Official Monitor, Bucharest, 2010. GEORGESCU, Radu Călin, "Short Hermeneutics of the Nude in Romanian Painting", Bucharest, 2011. PARIZESCU, Vasile, "Life as a Passion. The Collectors.", Official Monitor, Bucharest, 2012.

Dimensions

width 34 cm, height 49 cm

Description

oil on cardboard, signed upper right, in brown, "Tonitza"

Research information

The artwork was exhibited at the "N. N. Tonitza" exhibition, Art Museum of the R.P.R., Bucharest, January - March 1964 and is reproduced in the exhibition catalog under the name "Woman in Grey on Armchair", cat. 132.

Lot.notes

On the back, noted and signed: "Study for a portrait, N. Tonitza"

Dating

1926-1928

PROVENANCE

Alexandru Nicolaescu collection; Zoia Ceaușescu collection: Confiscated in December 1989, being taken over by the National Museum of Art of Romania. Returned to the heirs of the Zoia Ceaușescu family, in the year 2012; private collection.

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