Back To The 18th - 19th Century

Browsing though my art folders I had to realize a good part of the photos taken at the most beautiful exhibition have not been posted yet. So today I'd like to correct that and show you something extraordinary you don't come across every day.

The artist, Alexandru Vlasin is an experimented and accomplished one, in his 80's, who has a particular style you don't see these days, unless we're talking about painters from the 18th or 19th century.

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Portrait of a Shepherd

Most of you don't know what an authentic Romanian shepherd looks like, but I can tell you, this is how shepherds looked like a few decades ago. Today they look a bit different, but the artist is famous for depicting people from the past. What I appreciate regarding the way he depicted the shepherd is the rough reality you see. Shepherds are working people, roaming the pastures, so you can't expect fashion or high end style and that's exactly what you see on the canvas.

Battle in the Mureș Valley

One of the particularity of the exhibition was that the paintings were mostly of irregular size, which is a plus in my eyes as I had enough of those common size paintings. This canvas is long and narrow, which is perfect for such a battle scene. I didn't take a close up photo of this one, to show you how life like those people in the battle were, so you have to take my word for it.

The Forester's Wife

Not the beauty one would look for when buying a painting, but this is actually a very valuable one. Why? Just look at the scene the artist has immortalized on the canvas. It's a fight between husband and wife and what makes it more interesting is the mirror behind the wife, which shows the forester as well. I've been to countless exhibitions and trust me, I've never seen such a painting, with the characters in such a position.

Turks Looting A Monastery

We have a lot of Turks on Hive, so they might feel offended by this painting and title, but the truth is, Romania has a long and bloody history with the Turks and this scene might have happened several times in reality. So no offense. Putting aside the grievances, judging the painting purely from artistic point of view, this is a brilliant piece in my eyes. The characters are perfectly depicted and the action look very real.

Funeral at Mediaș

Another wonderful one in my eyes, for being so life like. I don't know how familiar you are with postcards issue in the early days of postcard history, but there were those colorful illustrations, which looked pretty much like this painting.

What I love about these paintings with multiple characters is the face expression of the characters. If you have a closer look, you'll see how detailed their face is and each face expresses some emotions, which is crucial.

Portrait

You may ask why is the title Back To The 18th - 19th Century and the question is legit as the artist is still among us and the paintings were painted in the 20th and 21st century. The answer is because most of the characters and scenes reminds me of the paintings painted in the 18th - 19th century. I really appreciate this a contemporary painters are rarely painting scenes like this.

Cherry Forest

Looking at the painting, I was hoping for a title that reflects the woman's struggle in gathering firewood, yet the title refers to the forest :) Regardless, it's a very nice one. This phenomenon does not exist anymore, unless you own the forest. But if you own the forest, you don't have to gather wood and carry it on your back. Life was not easy back then.

Battle in the Rămeț Gorges

To give you an idea about the size of these canvases, this must have been like 1m wide. What I did was start at the left side and go though every 10 cm and examine the characters. It's a battle scene, a pretty crowded one, so there's plenty to see and worth spending the time to look at the details. Imagine how much work goes into such a canvas and how long it takes to complete such a painting.

Ioana

I'm not entirely sure, but I think the lady on the painting is the wife of the artist.

Ioana

Another portrait of the lady.

Ioana With A Straw Hat

Moments of this makes me regret I could not attend the opening. The lady was present at the opening and it would have been interesting to see her live and compare her to these portraits.

Ana Vlasin

I suppose the lady is the mother of the artist. As far as I know they had a very close relationship and the painter loved her mother, so it's normal to have her on canvas.

This was an exhibition I will not forget and I feel privileged to be allowed to take photos of the paintings. These paintings are not for sale and once the exhibition is over, they most likely go back to the storage room and you don't see them again.

Let's see which one is your favorite.

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