8. Landscape with Figure - Camil Ressu
Camil Ressu, Romanian painter and full member of the Romanian Academy, is considered one of the essential figures of Romanian realism. The artist was deeply concerned with the direct relationship between man and his environment, always working from life, as he himself stated. Born in Galați in 1880, Ressu studied at the Schools of Fine Arts in Bucharest and Iași, and later at the Académie Julian in Paris. Returning to the country in 1908, he became known for works inspired by Romanian village life, bringing to the forefront the figure of the peasant, portrayed with dignity and simplicity.
A defining moment in his artistic evolution came when, at the invitation of Alexandru Bogdan-Pitești, an influential collector and art critic, Ressu joined the artists’ camp in Vlaici. There, he was deeply moved by the life of Romanian peasants, observing the dignity, physical strength, and sobriety of those who worked the land. Although he had studied in Paris and was familiar with academic art, it was in the rural landscape of Vlaici that he found his personal vision. He began to abandon superficial picturesque details, focusing instead on the monumental structure of figures and the compositional balance that reflected the gravity and austerity of rural existence. Vlaici was not just a simple creative retreat, but the place where Ressu discovered the subject that defined his work and style, opposing rural authenticity to the uniformity of urban life.
After 1925, Camil Ressu dedicated himself to art education, becoming a professor and later the rector of the School of Fine Arts in Bucharest. As a teacher, he emphasized the study of drawing and the live model, believing that artistic truth can only be achieved through direct observation of reality. In 1955, a large retrospective exhibition was organized in his honor, and his activity was recognized through his election as a full member of the Romanian Academy. Camil Ressu passed away on April 1, 1962, in Bucharest.
This painting is titled Landscape with Figure. The work is undated, so the exact time of its creation is unknown. The painting depicts a rural scene with a single character — an elderly woman walking home among a few tall-crowned trees. The house is placed in the background, surrounded by a fence with an entrance on the left side. The background of the painting is rendered with a matte texture.
In the middle of the painting, toward the bottom, stands the woman, seen from behind. She wears a headscarf, blouse, and long skirt, all rendered with a smooth texture and raised contours. In her right hand, she holds a bucket, represented with a solid texture, which appears heavy, judging by the slightly bent position of her body. Around her are trees with very tall trunks, depicted with a fine texture, as are some branches emerging from the trunks near the top. Following the path of these branches, we discover areas with a rough texture — these are the crowns of the trees. The same rough texture appears in the lower part of the painting, representing the grass on the ground.
Behind the trees is a fence with thick outlines and numerous thin vertical relief lines, showing the structure of a wooden fence. On the left side of the fence is the entrance, toward which the woman is walking; it is marked by two raised posts, as tall as the fence but much thicker. Between them there is an empty space — the location of the gate. The gate itself is not visible, as it stands open behind the fence.
In the most distant plane is the house. The gabled roof has thick contours and a chimney. On the façade are two rectangular windows, each divided into six small panes. Next to the left wall is a porch, of which we see very little — a top and bottom outline and two thin vertical posts, all represented with raised lines.
The atmosphere is one of calm, though not of rest. The elderly woman, the only character, is seen from behind, walking toward her home, suggesting the end of a workday and a certain heavy routine. Her slightly bent posture gives the scene a discreet melancholy and a sense of quiet dignity. There is no dramatism, only an acknowledgment of the harshness of rural existence.
Ressu left behind a vast artistic legacy that documents and honors Romania’s rural values. His honest approach to the simple human condition — devoid of pathos yet full of strength and dignity — places him among the greatest masters of modern Romanian painting. His entire mature work was devoted to plastic truth: “I cannot be moved unless I come into direct contact with reality.”