167. Ox on the Alley [1895-1907]

Facing an art handled with virtuosity and precision, the artist Grigorescu, during his creation would invoke all the artistic genres. From portraits, to interior scenes, still life, nudes, landscapes, subjects inspired by the independence campaign or scenes from the life of the Romanian villagers, the artist will ennoble his work with admirable compositions. Back to Romania from Barbizon, Grigorescu would be more and more attracted to outdoor painting, a painting that he would adopt as a way of working. Endowed with visual features, the artist would capture impressive themes of life, especially from the village life, which would acquire deep meanings along the way. Compositions with sheepherder grazing sheep, girls caught with a fork in their belt or harvesting hay, portraits of peasants and country girls, carts with oxen, etc. With a visual and spontaneous manner in laying the brushstroke on the canvas, for the artist the painting would represent the expression by colour, which should have been treated openly, without the need for a preparatory intervention. This method of work, learned during his apprenticeship at Barbizon and followed throughout his career, is used to reveal impressive qualities as a colourist, along with an impressive variety in terms of artistic treatment. The same creative freedom is used to treat the painting "Boulean pe cale", present in 1984 at the Retrospective exhibition "Nicolae Grigorescu painting-graphic", from the Art Museum of the Romanian Socialist Republic, again another testimony of the authentic rural, expressed by the painter of the Romanian space felt through direct experience. (GM)

References

VLAHUȚA, Alexandru, „Pictorul N. I. Grigorescu: Vieața și opera lui”, Ed. Scrisul Românesc, Craiova, 1910. OPRESCU, George, „Nicolae Grigorescu”, Ed. Meridiane, București, 1963. Catalogul Expoziției „Nicolae Grigorescu. Pictură-grafică”, Muzeul de Artă al Republicii Socialiste România, București, 1984-1985. BREZIANU, Barbu, „Nicolae Grigorescu”, Ed. Meridiane, Bucureşti, 1987.

Dimensions

width 42 cm, height 28.5 cm, custom 28,5 × 42 cm

Description

oil on canvas, signed bottom left, with red, "Grigorescu"

Research information

The artwork was part of "Nicolae Grigorescu. Painting - Graphic Art" retrospective exhibition, R.S.R. Museum of Art, Bucharest, 1984-1985, under cat. 312, under the title "Ghiocel" ("Snowdrop") and is reproduced in the exhibition catalogue.

Dating

1895-1907

PROVENANCE

colecția istorică Elena Murgulescu

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

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