100. Return from the Field [1903]

The photos of the lot are informative and indicative, and cannot provide a highly detailed view of the object from all angles. We recommend a careful physical inspection of the lot before bidding.

100. Return from the Field [1903]

Nicolae Grigorescu

1838, Pitaru, Dâmboviţa - 1907, Câmpina

Estimate:

EUR 25.000 - 45.000

Sold

EUR 40.000

References

CIUCĂ, Valentin, "Pe urmele lui Nicolae Grigorescu", Editura Sport-Turism, București, 1987
VLAHUŢĂ, Alexandru," Pictorul Nicolae Grigorescu", Bucureşti, 1910

oil on wood, 24 x 45.5 cm, 45,5x24, signed and dated lower left "Grigorescu, 1903", in red

PROVENANCE

the historic collection of Adolf Grünberg-Ruleta. The name of Adolf Grünberg-Ruleta is related to Romanian collectionism in the first decades of the 20th century, as he was one of the most significant art lovers in Bucharest. Active from the very first years of the century, Ruleta first approached the group of artists around the Artistic Youth society, but he expanded his tastes considerably after the First World War. Around the year 1930, his collection included the most prominent figures of Romanian art: Theodor Aman, Ștefan Luchian, Nicolae Grigorescu, Ioan Andreescu, Iosif Iser , Theodor Pallady, G.D. Mirea, Nicolae Dărăscu, Francisc Șirato, Camil Ressu or Jean Al. Steriadi. Even though the collection was dispersed around the Second World War, it remains an example of collectionism and building of treasures in the history of Romanian art, due to the renowned trading techniques of Ruleta.

Analysing a painting by Nicolae Grigorescu in a strictly unbiased manner is an obsolete approach, given that the main qualities of the visual may be lost in the convolute technical language. One of the problems of this method occurred when discussing the painter's last period of creation, which was hurriedly described as inferior. In fact, this last period is the peak of a creation dominated exclusively by Impressionist features, even though Mannerism should not be ignored, either. The result that Grigorescu gets is due to his close contact with nature, which was more visual and rational, an essential necessity for an Impressionist. In the last stage of his art, his imagination undergoes a change in values, the particularising formula disappears, the individualisation is no longer sought after, but it is not replaced by a dull generality. The visual qualities of objects are blended and integrated in the chromatic discourse that now only generalises the shape of the total aspect. This painting, an integral part of the last decade of creation, does not ring false among the art of luminous colours, in this deep discourse of transfiguration of natural phenomena. The motif of the road attracts Grigorescu particularly as regards the initial specificity of his entire activity. Without giving up his plein air desiderata, all the visual sources are integrated in the landscape or, even more so, in nature as holder of the compositional frame. Thus, in his artistic development, colour and light remain essential, and the subject - a famous one - is integrated in a pure pictorial discourse.

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