Nicolae Ion Grigorescu

Born May 15, 1838, in the village of Pitaru, in Dibovija District; died July 21, 1907, in Cîmpina. Rumanian painter, son of a peasant.

Grigorescu studied in Bucharest (up to 1855) and in the School of Fine Arts in Paris. In his youth he painted icons and decorated churches and monasteries. During 1861–69 he worked in France, where he was part of the Barbizon school. He’participated in the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–78 as a Rumanian volunteer. He painted Rumanian landscapes, historical and battle scenes, and genre compositions that were permeated by a profound democratic feeling; he painted freely and used fresh, very light colors. His works (Peasant Woman From Muscel, l877;The Storming of Smyrdan, 1885; Ox-drawn Cart, c. 1890—all at the Museum of the Socialist Republic of Rumania, in Bucharest) had an important part in setting the traditions of Rumanian realistic painting of the late 19th and early 20th century.