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9. The Artist’s Wife - Ioan Zaicu

Ioan Zaicu is one of the most important figures in Banat art from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He was born in 1868 in Fizeș, Caraș-Severin County. His artistic studies were completed at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, as a scholarship recipient.

Ioan Zaicu was a complex artist, known both for his religious paintings and for his portraits. The frescoes in Nădlac, Csongrád, and Timișoara-Fabric reflect the academic style acquired in Vienna, reinterpreted through a traditional Banat lens.

In 1897, the artist received his first major commission: painting the Orthodox Church in Nădlac, where he met his future wife, Vioara Ruga. In 1911, he bought a house in Timișoara, where he lived until 1914, when he passed away due to medical complications.

The work “The Artist’s Wife” is executed in oil on canvas and is undated. The background is empty, rendered through a matte texture.

In the center of the painting, there is a single figure — the artist’s wife. She is seated on an elegant chair with a carved wooden backrest and arms. The composition shows her from the front, from the top of her head to her ankles. Her face is outlined with a raised contour and represented through a smooth texture. The eyebrows, eyes, nose, and lips are sketched with fine lines. Her expression is slightly neutral, contemplative. Her hair is neatly tied back, depicted with thin lines.

Her dress, rendered with a fine texture, has a collar that covers her neck. On the chest area, one can feel an embroidery made of thin lines, and at the waist, a large belt with a rough texture. The shoulders of the dress are puffed, and the sleeves cover her arms down to the hands. It is an elegant dress made of a fine, expensive fabric, typical of the early 20th century for the upper social class. The hands are shown with a smooth texture and outlined with a raised line. The fingers can be counted. On her right hand, she wears a bracelet, and on both ring fingers, a ring. These ornaments can be felt as raised lines. In her left hand, she holds a book, represented with a rough texture. The book suggests that she was an educated woman, able to read — a relatively rare trait for that time.

Below her right elbow, one can feel the chair’s decorative elements — several hanging fringes.

To the right of the figure, there is a curtain, and to the left, a house plant. The curtain is represented with a rough texture and tied in the middle with a cord.

On the left side, the potted plant — a type of palm — has long, smooth leaves outlined with a raised line.

The art critic Ion Frunzetti observed that Zaicu painted each portrait “far from being indifferent to the inner life of his sitters, Zaicu sought… to make from a portrait a human document,” capturing not only his wife’s features but also her life and spirit.