360. Reverie (Portrait of Zettina Urechia)

Grigorescu's drawings are undoubtedly a special category of the great artist's creation, both their significant quantity and their direction or purpose creating a stand-alone subject, relevant for a separate study. Besides, in 1941 George Oprescu devoted for the first time a larger academic study to this topic, thus trying to bring to the forefront the importance of drawings in the entire creation of Grigorescu. In the edition published by the Romanian Academy in the early 1940s, we can find a quasi-exhaustive cataloguing of Nicolae Grigorescu's graphic creation, not only because of the narrative style approached by Oprescu but also due to the relatively small number of presented works. But the 116 drawings presented are meant to mark the indisputable, aesthetic quality, but particularly to work as an adjuvant in the exercise and preparation of further oil compositions. That freedom of brushstrokes, the ease commonly attributed to Impressionist painters, who undulate their brushstrokes according to light is viscerally related to Grigorescu’s primary quality of drawer. Grigorescu has drawn quite a lot, and – compared to Andreescu, who has drawn little, or Luchian, who has taken his pastels closer to exceptional painting valences - managed to cover a wide range of subjects, sometimes surpassing the need to prepare them. The landscape comes from the painter’s pure passion for it, from Barbizon scenes to countryside campaigns, depicting the most impressive views in short sketches. Perhaps the most richly depicted period in terms of the amount of sketches made is the campaign of 1877-1878, when Grigorescu was involved in the Romanian campaign for "political independence" south of the Danube. The need for quick drawings was one of the requirements of a war reporter, given the events, the manoeuvres, or life in general within the Romanian headquarters. Beyond pencil or dip pen sketches, Grigorescu liked charcoal, much more sensuous and suitable to works with true pictorial elements. Without leaving harsh or rough marks, matte and homogeneous on the surface of the paper, the charcoal in this work introduces us not only to the intimacy of Grigorescu’s creation - the female portrait - but also to the intimacy of his family and friends. The portrait depicts a profile of the second wife of Vasile Alexandrescu Urechia – a friend of Grigorescu – Zettina Urechia, born Pester-Wirth, in fact the younger sister of Emilia Dona, the mother of collector Dr. Iosif Dona. Actually, the Dona collection had an important core of works by Grigorescu taken from the Urechia collection, in several stages, after the death of spouses Vasile and Zettina. In May 1924, Iosif Dona inherited 17 works from his aunt, 6 of which were signed by Grigorescu, and subsequently, following the division of his inheritance and the negotiations with a cousin, the collector renounced a plot of land on Cazavillan Street for another 13 works by Grigorescu. (I.P.)

Dimensions

width 24.5 cm, height 32 cm, custom 24,5x32

Description

charcoal on paper, signed lower left, in pencil, "Grigorescu"; embossed seal upper right, "MME POTTIN A NANTES/ INVENTION & PERFECTIONNE 1844/ PAPIER PELLEE/ TOILE DE 4 TEINTE 3"

Research information

Opera este reprodusă în monografia "Viața și opera pictorului Nicolae I. Grigorescu",
Alexandru Vlahuță, București, 1910 și este reprodusă la pag. 203.

Opera a participat la "Expoziția Centenarului Pictorului Nicolae Grigorescu", Academia Română și Municipiul București, 12 - 30 iunie 1938, București și este menționată în catalogul expoziției la cat. 169, sub titlul "Cap de femeie".

Opera este reprodusă în albumul "Grigoresco - Les maîtres de la peinture roumaine", Editions en langues etrangeres de l"Institut Roumain pour le relation culturelles avec l"etranger", Ionel Jianu, Bucarest, 1956, la pag. 28.

Opera a participat la expoziția retrospectivă "Nicolae Grigorescu", Muzeul de Artă al R.P.R., București, 1957, și este reprodusă și menționată în catalogul expoziției la cat. 315, pag. 115.

Opera este reprodusă în monografia "Nicolae Grigorescu", acad. George Oprescu, Ed. Meridiane, București, 1961, la cat. 142, pag. 201 sub titlul "Portret de femeie". Opera este reprodusă în monografia "Grigorescu", George Oprescu, Ed. Meridiane, București, 1961 la cat. 18, pag 37.

Opera este clasată în categoria Tezaur a Patrimoniului Național Cultural Mobil, prin ordinul ministrului culturii nr. 2019 din 19.01.2007. Ofertată statului român în cadrul procedurii de exercitare a dreptului de preempțiune, conform adresei 20/26 ianuarie 2018, aferent prezentei vânzări prin licitație.

PROVENANCE

Zettina and Vasile A. Urechia collection. Zettina Urechia, born Wirth, was the aunt of Iosif Dona, the younger sister of Emilia, the collector's mother; Elena and Dr. Iosif Dona collection; Maria Dona collection; patrimony of the Art Museum of the Socialist Republic of Romania; patrimony of the Art Collections Museum near the National Museum of Art of Romania; Dr. Șerban Andronescu Ghika collection.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

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