196. In the Village on the Valley [cca. 1925]

Francisz Șirato's debut is profoundly related to graphic art. In the first decades of the last century, he collaborates with the newspapers of the time and makes satirical drawings. He will thus get to know Iosif Iser and Ary Murnu, whose views on art and life he also shares. The year 1907 marks his debut in the Official Salon. His beginnings are intertwined with impressionism, but the artist considers that this movement limits him too much in the passive-decorative function of the canvas. The sources of his inspiration can be easily identified in the Romanian traditional art and in the plastic vision of Cézanne. From the latter, the artist takes over the concern for balance and compositional organization, while Romanian traditional art will serve as a reference for the fascinating science of colour. The year 1918 will find Șirato in the editorial staff of "Sburătorul" ("The Flier"), where he publics the articles dedicated to criticism and plastic chronicle. In this work, the artist meticulously lays out the sequence of planes, capturing both the plastic force of nature and the tranquillity of rural life. Nature appears, in his creation, as the primordial inspiration source. The rural life is exposed by the colourful roofs and the string of walls. The perspective is, for Șirato, more than the technique. Thus, he will use the line as a means of expressing volumes through light games. He builds predominantly from light and colour and subjects the line duct to a secondary plane, achieved through contrasts. He uses vibrant chromatic alternations, to which he assigns oscillations of light and shadow. Șirato opts for a bright chromatic, by which he suggests midday hours, towards sunset. The fluid interweaving of planes in which vegetation occupies the foreground and dictates the order of rural life becomes a particular feature of his works. In landscapes, the artist goes beyond the illustrative frame, of traditional nature, managing to capture - especially at the level of essence - the traditional myth and the rural life. He will remain thus, an illustrator of his own theoretical researches. The researches and thoughts in his criticism and reviews are successively translated into works of art.

References

DRĂGUȚ, Vasile, "Fr. Șirato", State Publishing House for Literature and Art, Bucharest, 1956. ISPIR, Mihai, "Șirato", Meridiane Publishing House, Bucharest, 1979.

Dimensions

width 41 cm, height 32.5 cm

Description

oil on cardboard, signed bottom left, in brown, "Șirato"

Dating

cca. 1925

PROVENANCE

old Romanian private collection, Czech Republic.

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