103. At the Pump [1918]

Gaining entrance into the close circle of the collector Alexandru Bogdan-Pitești would place Camil Ressu in the privileged group of artists who had the chance to work, summer after summer, at Vlaici. Initially, the artist carries out studies and sketches which he will then translate into oil on canvas. He surpasses the precepts of the academism he gained during the few months spent in Munich and constructs his own plastic semantics, eloquent and well-rounded. He constantly returns to Vlaici, so that his existence will be split, over time, between the uniformity of urban life and the prolific experiences that rural life offers him. He will use the direct contact with the peasantry for the development of a deeply subjective vision. The artist organizes his compositions horizontally and creates true frescoes of villages in Olt, Moldova, Vrancea or Ardeal. He composes balancedly and keeps real proportions; he constructs his drawing with precision and submits the color to it. The artist's works exemplify the life, work and customs of the rustic world, but sometimes they reveal moments of leisure. A subject rarely encountered in his landscapes, often describing open spaces, is illustrated in the present work by the inner courtyard. We also find a variant of the work, treated in the same dull chromatics, with decisive strokes and sure lines. If in the present work the human figure is illustrated by the male character, the analogous work describes the silhouette of a woman, with a long dress and apron. The buildings surrounding the character and the well placed in the middle of the courtyard are the elements linking the two works. The lapidary realism that Ressu assumes is revealed to us primarily in the cold tones bathed in sunlight, in the broad surfaces of light and shadow and in the true rendition of volumes and rhythms. In 1917, Camil Ressu was in Iași, where he was enrolled in the Romanian army as a lieutenant. Around 1918, probably the year in which he also created this work, C. Ressu joined the “Romanian Art” group, with whom he exhibited in Iași, alongside Nicolae Tonitza, Traian Cornescu, Ion Theodorescu-Sion, Ștefan Dimitrescu and others. The artist will continue to exhibit for several years within the “Romanian Art” group.

References

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

Dimensions

width 60 cm, height 50 cm

Description

oil on cardboard, signed lower left, in pencil, "C. Ressu"

Dating

1918

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