208. Boyar's House in Târgoviște [1917]

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208. Boyar's House in Târgoviște [1917]

Gheorghe Petraşcu

1872, Tecuci, Galați - 1949, Bucureşti

Estimate:

EUR 8.000 - 12.000

Sold

EUR 8.500

References

FLOREA, Vasile, "Gheorghe Petraşcu", Ed. Meridiane, Bucureşti, 1989
"Gh. Petraşcu", Catalogul expoziţiei de pictură, Muzeul de Artă al Republicii Socialiste România, Bucureşti, 1972

oil on canvas, 36 x 44 cm, 44x36, signed and dated lower left, in black, "G. Petraşcu, 1917"

Although 1917 is a complicated year for Romania, who was involved in World War I and had a large part of its territory occupied since the end of 1916, the Romanian artistic world continued. In Moldavia, in the de facto borders of occupied Romania, most of the artists involved in the war participated as volunteers alongside the General Staff, the Section III Adjutants. Those who remained in Bucharest, in the territory occupied by the German armies, continued their activity, as much as they could in war conditions. Petraşcu is one of those who remains in the capital of the country and who, as this painting shows (signed in 1917), continues to work and even exhibit his paintings. But the artist was affected by the events of the war, with his mansion and workshop in Nicoreşti being destroyed, as they were very close to the Eastern Front. This painting, which was also made in a few other versions, in the typical manner of Petraşcu, presents us with a motif very dear to the artist: the Romanian house, seen in a limited perspective, painted with generous touches. In Petraşcu's landscapes with houses, the latter often seem desolate, even deserted. We rarely find in them the human presence and hints of its existence, such as the fence or the yard (the homestead). Even so, the monumentality of Petraşcu's view becomes the coordinator of the entire visual plane, making the landscape vibrate with every brushstroke.

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