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Nicolae Grigorescu is considered not only the leading figure of Modern Art in Romania, but also the greatest painter of Jewish figures after Rembrandt. In a palette of intense light, he painted everyday scenes of its people and the countryside. His pictures formed a personal and modern vision of Romanian national identity, and his portraits of Jews, painted in a brilliant, authentic manner, are part of that vision.
Grigorescu was fascinated by the human figure. Besides self-portraits, portraits of friends, and of peasants, he dedicated himself at different stages of his career to the study of Jewish types. Attracted by the Jewish world, its particular way of life and looks, he made his first studies of Jewish types during his trips from Paris to Romania through Galicia, in the years 1864, 1867, and in 1869.
Captivated by the people he encountered during those trips, and having in mind the portraits of rabbis made by Rembrandt, his most significant series of paintings created following these tours are those dedicated to Jewish figures: portraits in which there is no hint of condescension or dislike, but rather an affirmation of the Jew's vitality and robustness, his rootedness in his country's milieu, and struggle for civil rights.
As Alexandru Vlahuță wrote in his monograph of 1910:
"studies of Jews: old clothes dealers, innkeepers, money lenders, teachers -each one of them with his particular posture and expression, representing the portrait of the race, watching you, from the shadows of biblical times, through those tight shut, attentive, bright eyes that do not sleep— behind which one can perceive the anxious soul of the ancient Jewish people, in a perennial effort to keep up with the youth of other nations."
Grigorescu's most important documentary tour was in 1874, when he spent the summer and autumn in Bacău, Moldova. There, he stayed at the house of the Gruenberg family, where he met their son, the future painter Nicolae Vermont.
To the pen sketches he made during his stay in Bacău, some oil paintings were added, among them, "The Jew in caftan." However, the most important painting that Grigorescu created during his stay in Bacău is "Bâlciul de la Bacău”(The Fair in Bacău), made after months of observations and sketches (the sketch book is kept in the Bacău collection at the Engravings Cabinet, Romanian Academy Library).
Grigorescu's interest in the Jewish figures continued to be present in his work for many years, as he believed that if he will succeed to capture and convey in his paintings their particular look, together with their spirit and humanity, he will create immortal works for the Romanian art. Actually he was right, and his portraits of Jews are considered to be among the most important works of his entire creation, important documents not only in Romania but in the European art at the turn of the 20th century.
Alexandru Vlahuță, Pictorul Nicolae Grigorescu, București, 1910
Alexandru Vlahuță, Pictorul Nicolae Grigorescu, Editura Tineretului, București,1969
George Oprescu, Grigorescu desinator, Academia Română. Publicaţiile Fondului Elena Simu, Bucureşti, Monitorul oficial, 1941
George Oprescu, Nicolae Grigorescu, vol I, Editura Meridiane, București, 1961
Niculescu, Remus "Exp. Nicolae Grigorescu, catalog de", Muzeul de artă Republicii Populare Române, Bucureşti, 1957
Cătălina Macovei, Grigorescu, Parkstone press, 1999
