Constanta Art Museum

Nicolae Grigorescu, Flori de nalbă, ulei pe carton, 300 x 170

„Beach in Eforie”

Gheorghe PETRAȘCU (1872–1949)

The painting proposes a panoramic landscape of the beach from Eforie, animated by the presence, in some places, of several human characters. The painter shows us his perspective on the sea, seen from a distance, caught on a day when it is quite turbulent, the foaming waves breaking on the shore being a testimony to this. Petrașcu looks at this landscape from a hill with poor vegetation, to the left of the work can be seen some dry branches. The transition from the register of the rocky area to that of the sea is made by a strip of sand, painted in shades of green-yellow, orange, white and brown. On the horizon, the vibrant blue of the narrow strip of the sky harmonizes with the dark blue of the sea, over which different shades of the same color are juxtaposed, outlining a strong simultaneous contrast. The contrast between the shades of orange on the sandy strip and the blue ones and the green-blue tones on the stretch of water, as well as the green tones of the vegetation on the rocks, creates a balance between the two registers of the composition. The way in which the artist combines color paste shows once again his interest in the study of color, and not in the essence of shapes.