Nicolae Grigorescu

Nicolae Grigorescu (May 15, 1838—July 21, 1907) was one of the founders of modern Romanian painting.


He was born in Pitaru, (judeţul Dâmboviţa), Romania. In 1843 the family moved to Bucureşti. His three-year apprenticeship, begun at an early age (1848), to Anton Chladek, a Czech painter living in Bucharest, was followed by a time when he created icons for the church of Băicoi and the monastery of Căldăruşani. In 1856 he created the historical composition Michael the Brave dropping the flag, which he presented to the Wallachian Prince Barbu Ştirbei, together with a petition asking for financial aid for his studies. Between 1856 and 1857, he painted the church of the Zamfira Monastery (Prahova County), and in 1861 the church of the Agapia Monastery. With the help of Mihail Kogălniceanu, he received a scholarship to study in France.


His first years in Paris were spent at Sebastian Cornu's studio, where Renoir also made his apprenticeship. He used to go to the Louvre for reproducing children faces in Gericault's, Rubens's and Rembrandt's pictures. Being obsessed with the "plein-air" genre, which paved the way to the irruption of the Impressionistic school, Grigorescu spent each summer, as far as 1869, painting at Barbizon and some other places in the neighborhood of Paris. His paintings were shown at the Paris Salon in 1868, at the Bucharest Exhibitions of Living Artists (since 1870) and at the Art Exhibitions of the "Les Amis des Beaux-Arts" Society (since 1873). During 1873-1874 he would go on a study tour to Italy, Vienna, Greece and Constantinopole.


As frontline painter, he joined the troops in the 1877-1878 Independence War, and realized drawings which were to inspire his later compositions. One year after the Independence War he would paint in France, mostly in Bretagne, at Vitre, and at his Paris studio for twelve years (1879-1890). After his coming back, a succession of personal exhibitions would be organized at the Romanian Athenaeum in 1891, 1895, 1900, 1901, 1902, 1904. In 1889 his work was featured in the Universal Exhibition in Paris. He built a house at Câmpina, later to become the "Nicolae Grigorescu" Museum. He was named honorary member of the Romanian Academy in 1899.


At the dawn of modern Romanian culture, a time originating Eminescu's poetical genius, the pictorial language of Grigorescu became highly innovative. Grigorescu's painting art, diverse as it was, from that of a young mural painter to that of an Impressionistic School cognizer, was always on the acme and reverberated in the 20th century, long after his death. Father of modern Romanian painting, with Andreescu and Luchian as successors, Grigorescu was the great master worshiped by new generations of artists, who, early this century, were striving to reveal the profound wealth of the Romanian soul.


The uniqueness of his style and vision is to be remarked in portraits (D. Grecescu, Carol Davila, Andreescu at Barbizon), in self-portraits, in his compositions on the Independence War (Attack at Smârdan, A mounted rosior, Scenes with Turkish prisoners), in his several "Oxen Carts" pictures, in the country landscapes and the landscapes painted elsewhere (At Posada, The Grainville Fisherwoman, Crossroads at Vitre, The Old Woman in Brolle, A Wood Hut, An Autumn Landscape). His French "plein-air" experience matured into bringing light in his work and into rendering his composition genuinely rigorous and spontaneous.


The reality in his pictures is profoundly unaltered. The "secret geometry" of the picture keeps it unaltered, while, in the forefront, events seem to take place and the colors are bewildering. Grasping reality as the light changes it was one of the painter's great pleasures. In doing so he never got tired with the visible world. He was not prone to looking for picturesque in it, but to finding the valuable depth of a too common reality.

Nicolae Tonitza

Nicolae Tonitza (April 13, 1886, Bârlad – February 27, 1940, Bucharest) was a Romanian painter, engraver, lithographer, journalist and art critic. Drawing inspiration from Post-impressionism and Expressionism, he had a major role in introducing modernist guidelines to local art.


In 1902 he joins the National School of Fine Arts in Iaşi. In 1908 he left for Munich, where he attended the Königliche Bayerische Akademie der Bildenden Kunste (Royal Academy of Fine Arts); he began publishing political cartoons in Furnica (The Ant), and contributing art criticism articles to Arta Română (Romanian Art). Tonitza spent the following three years in Paris, where he visited artists' studios, and studied famous paintings.


After his return, Tonitza finished his studies and received also a church painter diploma. He then painted the churches of Grozeşti, Scorţeni, Silişte, Poeni, Văleni in Moldavia and worked as an art teacher, and then, together with Cezar Petrescu, as editor of Iaşul newspaper. He married Ecaterina Climescu in 1913. In 1916, after Romania entered the WWI, Tonitza was drafted into the Army and fell prisoner to the Bulgarians during the Battle of Turtucaia. Interned, he became ill with malaria and rheumatism, which would plague him until his death. He was set free and returned in 1918. During the 1920s, he was a member of the Arta Română group (alongside Gheorghe Petraşcu and others).



His commitment to social commentary is best perceivable in his graphic work, malicious and sometimes dramatic — he sketched for many contemporary, usually political and leftist, magazines. In 1921, Tonitza expanded his range, painting prototypes for a ceramics factory, and organizing a ceramics exhibition; the same year, he moved to Vălenii de Munte, and decided to cease contributing to the press. It was at the time that he developed on his characteristic style and themes, both of which, Zambaccian contended, were determined by his experiences as a father. In 1926, Tonitza, Oscar Han, Francisc Şirato, and Ştefan Dimitrescu, organized themselves as Grupul celor patru ("The Group of Four"). He met success in 1925, after opening a large exhibit in Bucharest, while raising controversy (including criticism from Ressu) over his "poster-like" style.



He begins must to be more and more appreciated and to considered in the time as the most important painter of moment, also by exposing abroad (Amsterdam, Brussels, Barcelona). Despite his fame, he continued to live an impoverished and hectic existence, which probably contributed to the decline of his health. Upon Dimitrescu's death in 1933, Tonitza held his chair at the Fine Arts Academy in Iaşi. A participant in several national exhibitions and World Fairs, he painted his last works around Balchik. He fell severely ill in 1937, and died three years later.



His aesthetic options were built around the problems of Impressionism, the achievements of the Post-Impressionists, the decorative trends of Modern Style. His equilibrium, his hedonism, his tempered sensitiveness are turned into the brilliancy of light and color in the harmony between color and line. Beyond the everyday torments, his painting remained serene, expressing a classicist artistic ideal. Highly influential and admired, he inspired several generations of artists with his works, which were at the same time original, strong and vivid.

Pârvu Mutu

Pârvu Mutul or Mutu (Pârvu the Mute, nickname of Pârvu Pârvescu; 1657-1735) was a Wallachian Romanian muralist and church painter.


In the mural painting of churches and monasteries at the end of XVIIth century and the beginning of the XVIIIth century, Pârvu Mutul left irrefutable evidences of a great artistic value.


He was born in the town of Câmpulung as the sixth son of the Orthodox priest Ioan Pârvescu, and began his career as a church painter at the age of 12. At six years after the birth, Pârvu loses his mother. His father takes Pârvu, the only remaining son of six children and went to Negru Vodă Monastery in the city, where the child's talent was noticed by the monks. Pârvu's first teacher was Father Evgheni, who taught him the fresco technique. His godfather, Tudoran Vlădescu, a Wallachian nobleman, sent him to complete of his studies in Bucovina to a famous Russian painter, where he remained for six years. He returned to Câmpulung around 1677, with new painting knowledge, but also with the nickname "Pârvu Mutu Zugravu", name that will pass into history. He lived around 40 years in Moldavia, returning to Wallachia in 1702. In 1718 he went to the Mărgineni Monastery, the place where he died.


Pârvu Mutul painted in fresco style the interiors of many churches, and most of his works were commissioned by the Cantacuzino family (a renowned noblemen family, descending from the emperors of Byzantium). He is mostly remembered for his achievements in portraits — his frescoes of church founders.