46. Bathing [1924-1926]

Camil Ressu

1880, Galaţi - 1962, Bucureşti

Estimate

EUR 15.000 - 25.000

Sold

EUR 26.000

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Session

Thu, 21 March 2024 19:00

One of the major influences on his work will be the encounter with the small village in Olt county, to which he will often return. He arrived at Vlaici at the beginning of the last century, at the invitation of the collector Alexandru Bogdan-Pitești. Initially, he carried out studies and drawings that he would later transpose into oil on canvas. He overcame the precepts of academia learned during several months spent in Munich and constructed his own eloquent and well-structured plastic semantics. He constantly returned to Vlaici, thus his existence would be divided over time between the uniformity of city life and the prolific experiences afforded to him by country life. He will use direct contact with the peasantry to develop a profoundly subjective vision. The artist insists on delving deeper into the psychology of his characters, eliciting discussions and insisting on getting to know his models. In this way, he identifies the genuine aspects of rural life, which he also transposes into works where he does not focus on outlining the characters. The artist organizes his compositions horizontally and creates veritable frescoes of the villages in Olt, Moldova, Vrancea, or Transylvania. He composes evenly and maintains real proportions; he constructs his drawing meticulously and subordinates the color to it. He uses a predominantly linear rhythm and a luminous color scheme in an effort to emphasize the dominant elements in his works. The artist's works exemplify rural life, work, and habits, but also sometimes reveal moments of reprieve. In landscapes, Camil Ressu will focus predominantly on picturesque nature, sketching sinuous contours of trees and hills, but also rendering the beauty of rural houses with white walls and colored roofs. The lapidary realism that Ressu assumes is predominantly revealed to us in the cool tones bathed in sunlight, in the broad surfaces of light and shadow, and in the truthful rendering of volumes and rhythms. If in most of the works that make up this thematic cycle the scenes of work or rural frescoes predominate where the emphasis slides on nature; this time we are dealing with a playful, relaxing scene, where a group of youngsters is caught on a hot day swimming. The dynamic composition captures the haste and impatience of the protagonists before the encounter with the water. Under the auspices of the sweltering sunny day, the three boys will completely give up the clothes that uselessly burden their bodies and will sprightly head towards the oasis meant to cool them down. The first boy who got into the water seems to encourage his fellows to venture more lively with him. Caught in the sleeves of shirts or in the shoelaces, the characters remaining on the shore plan their attack and begin to implement it in their own rhythm. The entire composition becomes revealing for the long summer days, when naughty activities take the place of daily work and give free rein to the children's imagination.

References

TEODORU, Rada, "Camil Ressu", Meridiane Publishing House, Bucharest, 1962. COSMA, Gheorghe, "Camil Ressu", Meridiane Publishing House, Bucharest, 1967. SCHOBEL, Doina, Catalogue of the retrospective exhibition "Camil Ressu", Bucharest, 1981.

Dimensions

width 80 cm, height 64.5 cm

Description

oil on canvas, signed bottom left, in black, "C. Ressu"

Research information

The artwork participated in the retrospective exhibition "Camil Ressu", Museum of Art of the RSR, Bucharest, 1981-1982 and is reproduced in the exhibition catalog on page. 146, cat. 82. The artwork is reproduced in the album "Ox Cart. Painting in Romania 1800-2000", Tudor Octavian, Official Monitor, Bucharest, 2012, on page. 91.

Dating

1924-1926

PROVENANCE

Dumitru Goga collection.

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