439. Snowdrop

This quick study, made perhaps directly in oil, based on a limited set of neutral colours, is a demonstration of virtuosity attesting to the artist's unmistakeable, alert and focused style when painting in plein air, his ability to synthetically render sun-drenched shapes. "[...] to be able to work fast. All things outside must be done quickly, plucked out of flight", Nicolae Grigorescu told Vlahuţă about his attitude to this type of painting (Vlahuţă, 1910, p. 176). Beyond the mature experience of his style, in this item from his later period we find a solid knowledge of animal anatomy. The quick rendering of a bovine head (a specific shape of skull) is the result of a long exercise of study - drawing by looking at the model - whose starting point was the apprenticeship at Barbizon and Marlotte. A current theme for the group of Realist painters working in the Fontainebleau forest and in its surrounding areas, this motif was considered a minor genre in the French painting. Charles Jacque or Jean-François Millet, Courbet, Daumier or Grigorescu are interested in both the domestic animal that works alongside the peasant, and in wildlife, a subject for still lifes with game. Following the example of the romantic generation in search of nature and expressiveness, the artists of the 19th century Paris trained in the study of animal anatomy by drawing living models at the Jardin des Plantes and by taking the courses of this discipline taught nearby, at the Museum d'Histoire Naturelle, by sculptors Antoine Louis Barye and Emmanuel Frémiet. Nicolae Grigorescu found in Romania almost all the rural themes of the Barbizon School and deals with them by turning them into the quintessence of his work. Among them is the animal painting that he integrates in a repertoire of favourite elements, reiterated by the artist in compositional variants depicting a national pastoral world, specific to his own vision. Painted sketches ("Snowdrop" in Vlahuţă, 1910, p. 217), as well as many drawings of animals in pencil, charcoal or dip pen (see the collection of the National Museum of Art of Romania, the Print Cabinet) show the painter’s interest in preparing compositions with such subjects. This study must have acted as practice in view of painting canvases in this thematic category, while also being a stand-alone work from the pictorial point of view, an example of modern language, based on the synthesis of light form. The inscription on the reverse confirms the authentication of the work in 1946 by the art critic H. Blazian, within the Expertise Committee of the Ministry of Arts. (I.B.)

Literatura

Jean Bouret, "L"Ecole de Barbizon et le paysage français au XIXe siècle", Neuchâtel, Ides et Calendes [f.a].
Julien Cain, Paul Leprieur, "Millet", Paris, Librairie centrale des Beaux-Arts [f.a.].
Françoise Gueroult, "Jean-François Millet 1814-1875 et le thème du paysan dans la peinture française du XIXe siècle", Musée Thomas Henry, Cherbourg, 1975.
Maria Kiss-Grigorescu, "Repertoriul graficei româneşti din secolul al XIX –lea, A-R", vol.I, Muzeul de Artă al R.S.România, Bucureşti, 1974, cat. 614-654.
G.Oprescu, "Nicolae Grigorescu", Bucureşti, ed.Meridiane, 1970.
A.Vlahuţă, "Pictorul N.I.Grigorescu.Vieaţa şi opera lui", ediţia Casei Şcoalelor, Bucureşti, Socec, 1910.
Cataloage de expoziţii
Remus Niculescu, "Expoziția Nicolae Grigorescu", catalog de, Muzeul de Artă RPR, 1957.
[Ioana Beldiman, Gheorghe Cosma], "Nicolae Grigorescu, pictură-grafică"[catalog expoziţie], Bucureşti, Muzeul de artă al Republicii Socialiste România, 1984.
Vincent Pomarède şi alţii, "L"Ecole de Barbizon. Peindre en plein air avant l" impressionnisme" [catalog expoziţie], Paris-Lyon, Réunion des Musées Nationaux, 2002.
Marie-Thérèse Caille, Denia Mateescu, Virgil Tănase şi alţii, "Nicolae Grigorescu (1838-1907). Itinéraire d"un peintre roumain. De l"école de Barbizon à l"impressionnisme", Paris, Somogy Editions d"Art, 2006.
Laurens des Cars şi alţii, "Gustave Courbet" [volum de studii şi catalog expoziţie], Musée d"Orsay şi The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Paris, RMN, 2008

Dimenzije

width 23.5 cm, height 38.5 cm

Opis

oil on canvas glued on wood

Informacije o istraživanju

Pe verso mențiunea: "Comisia retrospectivă la Ministerul Artelor şi Instrucţiunii autentifică lucrarea de pe faţă, ca fiind Nicolae Grigorescu, semnat şi parafat, H. Blazian, 1946."

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