Image description
The image of “Aișei” reproduced after Camille Ressu highlights a young woman in the foreground, in profile, sitting contemplatively on the edge of the bed.
The hair hidden and discreetly caught under the thin veil is textured with wavy lines.
The cameo medallion at the base of the neck and the watch on the hand are rendered by obliquely hatched lines, arranged in parallel, and so are the earrings with an elongated drop shape, worn in the ears.
Next to the model are a wooden box rendered by vertical, parallel lines and a textured glass vessel with oblique lines.
Historical data
Camil Ressu (1880-1962) was one of the most important Romanian artists who made their debut at the beginning of the 20th century. He was born in 1880 in Galați and will dedicate himself intensely to cultural activities in the country. He attended the courses of the School of Fine Arts in Bucharest and in Iasi and then developed them in Paris between 1902-1908. Here he visits the workshops of the french artist Jean Paul Laurence.
When he returned to the country, he founded the Romanian Art Association together with other Romanian artists. Then he became one of the most important cultural leaders of the time, assuming the role of president in the Union of Visual Artists in Romania. In 1924 he was appointed professor at the School of Fine Arts in Bucharest. In 1955 he obtained the title of People’s Artist and in 1956 he became a member of the Romanian Academy.
Regarding the topics that the artist addresses, the human theme remains the main concern and source of inspiration.
Very supportive of the world of humble people and social activist, he dedicates to them, compositions that remained famous in the history of the arts as “Workers at rest”, etc.
Another group portrait this time reflects the moral habits of the literary world but also his relationship with personalities like Tudor Arghezi or the painter Steriadi. The painting that represents them is called the Oteleșanu Terrace Cafe, the very place where these cenacles took place.
True to human expression, we find the artist full of inspiration in creating a nude woman named Aișe. Currently, the painting is in the top of the most expensive Romanian works of art appearing in 2019, in the index of the Artmark Auction House with the amount of 160,000 euros.
It is assumed that the work was made after 1928, when Ressu taught at the School of Fine Arts in Bucharest. In the painting appears a woman, with delicately contoured features, with her hair in a reddish shade caught in a veil. Her anatomical structure is balanced and voluptuous and the color palette of the composition is small but vibrant. The shades of color are distributed over large areas where cherry red predominates on the curtains in the background, extinguished by the cold grays on the sheets and the chrome green on the walls.
Bibliography
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