A major name in Romanian art at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th, Stefan Luchian (1868 - 1915) is still considered by many art critics and collectors to be the most important Romanian painter ever, one who gave national art a new breath of life, a new spirit and launched a new style, at the same time Romanian and European. He painted mostly landscapes, still lifes - mainly beautiful flowers - and portraits, yet his style was marked by his personal tragedy. The artist was a very sick man, fighting with a terible disease that finally killed him, being in and out of hospitals, trying to recover and working with a touching passion. He exhibited as often as he could, every time more impressive than before, but at the same time he was making ammends with his own suffering. A tragic figure in the world of arts.
Born on February 1st 1868 in Stefanesti, Botosani. The family moved to Bucharest in 1873, buying a rather large house, but unfortunatelly the father of the future painter died after four years, which meant the financial situation became increasingly difficult. Stefan Luchian made his first artistic creations while he was in school, his earliest existing work being the image of a house, dated 1884 and signed "Luchian St.". Only in 1885 he managed to enroll at the Fine Arts School in Bucharest. He moved to Munich in October 1889, where he enrolled at the Akademie der Bildended Kunste, where he studied under Johann Caspar Herterich, perfecting and maturing his style and broadening his choice of subjects. He was especially fond of masters such as Rembrandt or Coreggio, which he copied to and extensive degree and inspired much of his earlier works. He was also a rather successful poet, publishing some literary works in magazines, written in the Romantic style that was in fashion.
He returned to Romania in 1890, decided to make art a career, and had his first solo exhibition, a small one, with only five paintings. He moved on to Paris in 1891, wanting to complete his training and settled in the famous Quartier Latin, being influenced by the Impressionist artists and the style of Delacroix and Coubert. After a short return to Romania, he came back to Paris and enrolled at the Academie Julian. In the spring on 1893 he was back in Bucharest, showing his paintings in a small exhibition, then later opening a small permanent display of his works on Royal Street No 11, where he lived.
He continued his participations in various exhibitions, was elected vice-president of the "Ateneu Artistic Circle" and received some important commisions from the Romanian state. Close to some of the best and most popular Romanian artists of those times, he himself became increasingly known and in 1896 he bought a new house on the Kiseleff . In the same year he signed the so-called Manifesto of the Independent Artists' Exhibition, an impressive show to which he contributed with several works. The critics were enthusiastic about the new artist. The young Romanian artists, Luchian included, tried to import the French model of opening an exhibition as a protest against official salons, and it worked.
Later, Luchian painted frescoes in several churches, with great care and success, was elected a member of several cultural associations, had other shows. It seemed that all was going terrific, yet the artist fell ill, just before his carefully prepared marriage. All fell apart and Stefan Luchian started fighting the illness, at the same time trying to work even more than before. Often he was commited to hospitals, where he struggled to get better, and used to rare periods of peace and fragile health to continue his work. In 1903 he opened a splendid exhibition at the Casa Assan, with 39 works, all of them impressive examples of his mature style and choice of subjects. He even tried to support young artists, sent his paintings for national and foreign shows and became more and more popular. Prizes, medals, commisions, all came much too late. In 1910 he had his first last show, at the Romanian Athenaeum, where 80 of his best works could be admired by the public. He returned to the art world in 1912, where he exhibited at the "Tinerimea Romana" show, but he already was a shadow of his formeself. He died in 1915, on June 18th, in Bucharest. He was just 48 years old.
2008-05-30
