Nicolae Grigorescu

Nicolae Grigorescu painted Romanian country life in soft, luminous colour: peasant girls, ox carts on dusty roads, shepherds and rolling fields. He is considered one of the founders of modern Romanian painting.

He was born in 1838 in Wallachia and began as an icon and church painter. In 1861 he went to France, studied at the École des Beaux-Arts and then worked at Barbizon, painting outdoors alongside the Barbizon painters, which lightened his palette. He returned to Romania and also painted the War of Independence of 1877 and 1878. He died in Câmpina in 1907, and his house there is a memorial museum.

Andreescu at Barbizon, his portrait of his friend and fellow painter Ion Andreescu, recalls his French years.