MIRACULOUS HEALINGS - RUDOLF SCHWEITZER CUMPĂNA
Rudolf Schweitzer Cumpăna
(born, May 7th 1886, Piteşti - deceased February 17th 1975, Bucharest) The Bucharest Municipality Museum continues the series of exhibitions titles “Miraculous Healings”, with an exhibition dedicated to painter Rudolf Schweitzer Cumpăna, who passed away 40 years ago. The exhibition will present the public with two works recently restored through the efforts of the restoration laboratory specialists. “…Along with his German name, which could have caused a number of inconveniences, Mr. Schweitzer had a very Romanian rustic inspiration, one could even say that it was exclusively folkloric…” wrote Nichifor Crainic in 1919. Born in Piteşti on the 9th of May, son of a forest ranger, he showed signs of a passion for drawing from a young age. With the help of an uncle, he reached Berlin, where he studied painting, between 1904 and 1908, first at Professor Adolf Schlabitz’s private school, the at the Academy of Fine Arts, with the teachers Erich Hanke, Arthur Kamph, Anton Alexander von Werne. Reminiscing over this period, he said: “…my strong knowledge of shapes, volumes and values was very useful, the drawing techniques I learned at the Academy remained a sort of backbone for my art.” (in Fine Arts nr 2/1957, Gheorghe Poenaru, op.cit., p.7) His military service brought him back to the country in 1909. After his debut at the Official Salon, in 1911, he contributed in 1912 with five works at the event organized by the Artistic Youth Society; in 1913, he inaugurated his first personal exhibition in Crețulescu Passage, Bucharest. He participated in numerous group and individual events. He imposed himself as a prolific painter, active, in galleries and museums in country and abroad. Mobilized in 1916, he took part in battles in the area of Brașov, following which he was taken prisoner. He was sent to an internment camp, where painter Corneliu Michăilescu was also sent. In 1927 he established himself in Bucharest. In 1951 he became a U.A.P. member and a professor of painting at the „Nicolae Grigorescu” Institute of Fine Arts of Bucharest. Over the years he traveled across Romania and abroad, becoming familiar with varied landscapes and atmospheres. He also took in the artistic influences and archetypes of the places visited. His repertoire includes portraits, landscapes, and mundane realism scenes. He practiced a great variety of techniques: oil, watercolors, coal drawing, and washed drawing. Among his accomplishments we point out his work on the decorative panels for the Royal Palace living room. “Nothing of what he does is like anything anyone else has done, but not because he wills it so, but because it is his soul’s absolute requirement (…). From him we can expect a new interpretation of our world’s realities.” remarked historian Nicolae Iorga (in The Romanian People nr.1/1920). As a painter of rustic subjects, Rudolf Schweitzer Cumpăna truly has a distinctive personality. The picturesque he is in the search of – the picturesque of phenomena and interpretations – is issued from the construction of ensembles, from the chromatic palette, from the way in which he arranges his brush strokes. What he portrays is never devoured by light – which can be observed in Nicolae Grigorescu’s works, for example – but is reconstructed in colorful strokes, each with its own flamboyant presence. In a manner typical of modernism, his compositions appear frequently sectioned – like the structure of a photograph – heightening the feeling of a veritable instantaneous moment, separating the wider frame into individual scenes of interest. His way of working stands out through vigorous brush strokes, which reconfigure not only materials and textures, but also optical effects. Nicolae Tonitza defined his friend’s work through the following: “a reality sculpted through painting” (in The Literary Universe, December 19th 1926, Gheorghe Poenaru, Schweitzer Cumpăna, Meridiane, Bucharest, 1969, p-14). Without chasing strong displays of emotions, his works depict an interest with the potential expressivity of forms, the influence of lights, through color, atmosphere, and the capturing of the subjects’ psychology. “Realistically, only looking for that amenity of truth which constitutes the artist’s great voluptuousness, Mr. Cumpăna presents us with radiant works, with Oriental influences regarding lighting, and in which the daily life of a peasant unveils itself in all its frustrating gentleness”, wrote Elena Văcărescu in a text presenting the exhibition opened by Schweitzer-Cumpăna at the Jeanne Castel Gallery in Paris in 1931. Schweitzer Cumpăna was less influenced by passing fashions (hence the feeling of atemporality his works generate). His genuine creation is somewhere between impressionism (through the suggestion of lighting effects over volumes, spontaneity, etc.) and expressionism, thanks to his subjective selection (authenticity) with which he broaches his Oriental painting lessons, assimilating them yet remaining faithful to his own intentions. The methods he used are only those which go with his personal vision. The folkloric scenes he depicts are not idyllic, nor somber. The social message remains in the background, surpassed by the focus on the moment portrayed, and also by the painting’s subject. He does not avoid social themes, but his scenes with peasants avoid the pathetic. The two recently restored works – the “stars” of the exhibitions are inscribed in a themed series well represented, of the quotidian scenes he has almost invariably depicted, “Peasants at lunch”, “Peasants at the Public House”, other times “Dinner”. The construction is lapidary, with a strongly empathic efficiency. The human presences are convincingly outlined through traits subtly rendered. In the monography dedicated to Schweitzer-Cumpăna, Gheorghe Poenaru underlined a faithful portrait of the painter, in two words: “lucidity and modesty”. |