Georghe Stefanescu

It’s a curious fact that most of the Romanian painters I have come to know and appreciate in the past few months were born in the 1860-1900 period – whereas almost all of the 150 Bulgarians who figure in the little book I produced last year about realist Bulgarian painters were born a generation (30 or so years) later. What, I wonder, does that say about cross-national influences? Thanks to Theodor Aman, Bucharest certainly attracted some Bulgarian  painters at the turn of the century – but it was the city of Munich which had the pulling power for Bulgarian artists then.    

Georghe Stefanescu (1914-2007) is one of the few new faces in Romanian circles of that interbellum period. Earlier this week I found an attractive painting attributed to him in one of the Bucharest antique shops. I cannot, of course, be sure whether the painting is actually one of his - but he certainly had a lovely sense of colour - and the composition I saw (for 300 euros) has a mastery which appeals - this picture gives a sense. If I buy it I will put it online.

This facebook entry has some nice photographs of the guy in his studio.