91. Venice

The first journey that Dărăscu makes to northern Italy, in Venice and Chioggia, took place around 1910, the same period when Gheorghe Petrașcu also discovered lagoon views. It is probably one of the most interesting biographic elements linking the most celebrated Venice-themed painters from our country. In such personal interpretations, the two Maestros would manage to dominate these highly expressive images of Venetian towns. For over 25 years, Petrașcu and Dărăscu painted the canals, the lagoons, the markets and the bridges of Venice and Chioggia, and during this period their painting also shaped itself and gained definition under the influence of colour. The works of the two painters was able to last simultaneously, not only thanks to the exceptional value of the canvases, but also thanks to the fact that their paintings covered two different ranges of artistic taste. While Petrașcu rendered a stern Venice, with the rigid harmonies of an enamelled palette, Dărăscu, with his chromatic abundance, cheered up the brilliant views he captured in twinkles of light and colour. Dărăscu's most significant cycles dedicated to Venice (although he kept returning to Italy very often) would mark various phases in the evolution of his painting. If the series of 1912-1914 shows us the latest manifestations of typical impressionist paintbrush movements, the following periods of time (the mid '20s as well as 1930-1935) offer an extremely pictorial Dărăscu, guided only by the chromatic palette, and gradually eliminating the technical experiment.

References

Catalogue of the Retrospective Exhibition "Nicolae Dărăscu", Art Museum of the Socialist Republic of Romania, Bucharest, 1966 Exhibition Catalogue "Nicolae Dărăscu. Magician of colour", Cotroceni National Museum, Bucharest, 2009 DRĂGUŢ, Vasile, "Nicolae Dărăscu", Meridiane Publishing House, Bucharest, 1966

Dimensions

width 50 cm, height 61 cm, custom 61 × 50 cm

Description

oil on canvas, signed bottom right, with red, "N. Dărăscu"

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