39. View towards Notre Dame [1958]

1908, Bacău - 1975, Paris

Estimate

EUR 2.000 - 4.000

Sold

EUR 3.000

Session

Tue, 18 June 2024 19:00

In the initial phase of his creation, in Bucharest, Dimitrie Berea exercises his portraitist qualities and extensively investigates human psychology. A constant of his work - the invasion of color - will follow him throughout all stages of his artistic career, regardless of the thematic approach. His exile outside the country's borders will translate into friendships with notable personalities of the time: Dali, Picasso, Brâncuși, Derain, or Dufy. In Paris, Monte Carlo, or Nice, Dimitrie Berea exhibits alongside Bonnard, Matisse, or Picasso. He works in Paris, New York, and San Francisco, where he had his residences-studios. His works are found in important museums in Rome, Madrid, London, Paris, New York, San Francisco, or the Vatican. Among the reputed collections that have included works signed by Berea, we mention: Winston Churchill, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Henry Ford II, Salvador Dali, or Queen Elizabeth II of England. From interiors with large windows, wide open to the superb sunny landscapes and up to the capture of buildings in the exterior plane, enveloped in the green of the grass and the shadows of the trees, Dimitrie Berea will dedicate an extensive study to the natural frame. Borrowing characteristics of impressionism and fauvism, the artist will carry out a series of chromatic experiments in which he will value light and color. The lively, balanced drawing harmonized with the chromatic palette and the short, hastily overlapped brushstrokes reveal the artist in the posture of a true colorist. He surpasses the precepts imposed by impressionism and acquires a great freedom of creation, so that his shadows will sometimes acquire unexpected accents, in violet-blue shades. Dimitrie Berea will assimilate the process of plein-air painting from the beginning, so that, profit from his voluble nature, he will work directly in front of the subject - in Paris, London or America and will take advantage of these moments of creation to interact with the curious public. In the cycle dedicated to landscapes in the south of France, the artist pays tribute to his masters: Renoir, Bonnard, or Matisse. Sometimes he pictorially marks the landmarks of the city of light - Seine and Notre-Dame, as we can also see in the work here. With short brushstrokes, chromatically concentrated, he subtly outlines an entire Parisian universe. Starting with the raw green of nature and reaching the light blue of the sky, Dimitrie Berea inserts all his colorist knowledge into contouring the landscape. From the angle in which he is working, he captured a composition that abounds in details. The course of the Seine covers a substantial part of the work, while the cathedral is reserved for a secondary plan. We observe the bridge, but also the steps that descend to the water's surface, in a prolific encounter of light and shadow play.

References

The catalogue of the exhibition "Beer", January 24 - February 14, 1943, Kretzulescu Galleries, Bucharest.

Dimensions

width 38 cm, height 55 cm

Description

oil on canvas, signed and dated bottom right, in red, Berea, (19)58

Lot.material_carats

oil on canvas

Dating

1958

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

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