Yesterday I briefly looked at Art Nouveau influences in Bucharest's architecture, so I'm continuing the thread today by posting this image of a decorative panel portraying Spring (1901) painted by Ștefan Luchian (1868-1917) on display at Bucharest's Muzeul Naţional de Artă al României (The National Museum of Art).
The Romanian artist studied at the Bucharest Fine Arts School and at the Munich Fine Arts Academy before moving to Paris where he was influenced by Edgar Degas, Édouard Manet and impressionist and post impressionist works.
After going back to Bucharest he became the co-founder of the Salonul Independenţilor, and started mixing symbolist elements in his work, taking inspiration from movements such as Art Nouveau and the Russian group Mir iskusstva.
In his art Luchian perfectly managed to combine landscapes, still lives (and flower compositions in particular) with portraits and displayed a special congeniality with the Art Nouveau style.
Among his fans there was also Romanian writer Ion Luca Caragiale and Luchian is considered together with Nicolae Grigorescu one of the founding fathers of modern Romanian painting. His life was turned into a film in 1981 by Romanian director Nicolae Mărgineanu.
My research trip to Romania was made possible through a journalistic grant from the Institutul Cultural Român (ICR - Romanian Cultural Institute), Bucharest.
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