80. Landscape in Agapia Valley

Octav Băncilă

1872, Corni, Botoșani - 1944, Bucureşti

Estimate

EUR 2.500 - 4.500

Sold

EUR 4.500

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Session

Tue, 19 June 2018 19:00

The realistic vision typical of Băncilă's art represents the essential element of the assertion of the artist born in 1872 in Botoşani, in a conservative corner of the country, in a modest family (his widow mother took Octav to Iaşi and entrusted him to Ion Nădejde to raise him), in circumstances that brought him closer to the surrounding reality, for the depiction of which he studied at the School of Fine Arts in Iaşi, consolidating his knowledge and talent in Munich, Paris and Rome. He was thus established by the works that showed aspects of the inconvenient reality, which he did not copy, but rather memorised so that he could then recompose them in a truly "authentic" manner, approaching social themes that he dealt with directly on canvas, without preparatory sketches, with impulsive spontaneity, to the point where the artist was said to have transformed his "easel into a barricade and painting into a tribune of truth" (see Mihai Pocloş, "Octav Bancilă, an exhibition to celebrate 100 years since the artist's birth", Bucharest, 1972). The preferred subjects that gave him the opportunity to assert his fighting spirit are those related to the great uprising of 1907 and the First World War, subjects also dealt with by other Romanian painters. The rural environment is another inspiring motif for Băncilă, reminiscent of the realism of Millet and Courbet. Although he did not envisage "landscape" as a self-contained genre, Băncilă adopted it sporadically, emphasising a certain ambience typical of rural areas. While in his social painting Băncilă enhances plastic expression, in landscapes the artist finds the charm of details and colours combined in vivid accords, without giving up the consistency of the paste. The "Landscape in Agapia Valley" captures precisely the characteristics of Băncilă’s landscapes, highlighting the preciousness of the genre and the singularity of the joy with which he painted and conveyed himself. (M.N.)

Dimensions

width 39 cm, height 57 cm, custom 39x57

Description

oil on canvas, signed, dated and located lower left, in red, "Octav Băncilă, 1915, Agapia"

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