193. Catrina [1928-1930]

Nicolae Tonitza

1886, Bârlad - 1940, Bucureşti

Estimate

EUR 18.000 - 25.000

Sold post auction

EUR 18.000

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Session

Tue, 19 December 2017 19:30

Worked like a portrait, this painting introduces a variation of the theme by using a semi-nude model. The ingeniousness of the composition is typical of Tonitza, who throughout his career has tried to experiment in the pictorial plane, avoiding the prosaic at all costs. Tonitza's portraits, especially those created in the 1920s and 1930s, run from the intimate universe (wife, children) to a Romanian universal creation. Children’s faces are the ones that pave the way to an affective portrait-making, in which Tonitza states his artistic credo. For the artist, the portrait does not have to meet the requirements of absolute veracity, painting features very often being approached in a brief manner, sometimes even vague. Colour intensity thus becomes the main defining feature in the presentation of the face, even in the drawing of the body. The game of nuances that Tonitza sought, nuances of interpretation, but also chromatic ones, has led to an effective perception of human complexity, which should not be quantified in a cold, insensitive reproduction after "nature." Deepening the portrait has thus led to a psychological interpretation, also caused by the character of the painter, troubled by his own tumultuous existence. The touch of drama does not appear immediately, but develops gradually, yet it will be quite apparent from the second half of the third decade of last century. Having an emotionally fragile nature, with spots of tragedy "colouring" his life, Tonitza particularly focused his attention on the human universe, indisputably created, modelled and passed through his personal psychological filter. Thus, in the portrait, the artist adheres to the evidence of life, and even if the formal plane does not become a translator of the close universe, Tonitza’s oil paintings capture the essence of the human face in its most profound meaning.

References

CIUCĂ, Valentin, "Pe urmele lui Nicolae Tonitza", Ed. Sport-Turism, București, 1984
COMARNESCU, Petru,"N.N.Tonitza", Ed. Tineretului, București, 1962

Dimensions

width 30 cm, height 40 cm, custom 30x40

Description

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

Research information

Opera este reprodusă în catalogul "Nudul în pictura românească", Mircea Deac, Editura Monitorul Oficial, București, 2010.
Opera este reprodusă în revista "Antic Art Magazin", Nr. 45-46, august-septembrie 2011, la pag. 5.

Dating

1928-1930

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