Octav Băncilă
{{Short description|Romanian artist (1872–1944)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2016}}
{{Infobox artist
| name = Octav Băncilă
| image = Octav Bancila - Fotografie.jpg
| caption =
| birth_date = {{birth date|1872|2|4|df=y}}
| birth_place = Corni, Botoșani, Romania
| death_date = {{death date and age|1944|4|3|1872|2|4|df=y}}
| death_place = Bucharest, Romania
| resting_place =
| resting_place_coordinates =
| alma_mater = {{ubl|Iași Fine Arts School|Academy of Fine Arts, Munich}}
| training = {{ubl|Gheorghe Panaiteanu Bardasare|Constantin Daniel Stahi}}
| known_for = Painting
| style =
| movement = Realism
| spouse =
| children =
| parents =
| father =
| mother =
| relatives = Sofia Nădejde
| family =
| awards =
| signature = Octav Bancila - Semnatura.jpg
| signature_type =
| signature_size =
| signature_alt =
| memorials =
| website =
}}
Octav Băncilă ({{IPA|ro|okˈtav bənˈt͡ʃilə}}; 4 February 1872 – 3 April 1944) was a Romanian realist painter and left-wing activist. He was the brother of Sofia Nădejde, a feminist journalist, and the brother-in-law of {{ill|Ioan Nădejde|ro}} (an atheist and socialist thinker, editor of the magazine Contemporanul).
Biography
Born in Botoșani, he remained an orphan at age 4, and was raised in Iași by his much older sister and her husband, who first encouraged Octav's talent and passion for art.Epure, p. 4 After completing primary school, he entered the Fine Arts School in Iași, where he was taught by Gheorghe Panaiteanu Bardasare, Constantin Daniel Stahi, and {{ill|Emanoil Bardasare|ro|Emanoil Panaiteanu-Bardasare}}, graduating in 1893. Between 1894 and 1897, he lived and studied abroad on a scholarship: first in Italy and France, and finally in Germany, where he studied under Nicholaos Gysis at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Munich (it is not known whether he ever graduated).Epure, p. 6
Upon his return, he attempted to open a studio in downtown Iași, but financial constraints forced him to settle on the outskirts; it was during that time that Băncilă began exploring his major themes: the lives of peasants, factory workers, impoverished Jewish traders and artisans, conscripted soldiers, and of nomadic Roma people.Epure, p. 6–9 After 1901, he taught calligraphy and art in primary schools in the city.Epure, p. 8 Impressed by the outcome of the 1905 Revolution in the Russian Empire, he was soon active in socialist circles, and became an acquaintance of major intellectual figures on the Left, including Gala Galaction and Paul Bujor.Epure, p. 8–10, 17, 22
In 1907, following the crushing of the Romanian peasants' revolt, Băncilă began traveling the country and attempting to gather evidence of government repression and violence. The result was a series of twelve paintings (not all of them surviving), including his famous figure of an old peasant standing open-armed (titled Înainte de 1907, "Before 1907"), several images of dead bodies piled up in fields (being looked on by soldiers), and the eponymous 1907, depicting three ragged peasants running into rifle fire.Epure, p. 11–14[http://www.rrha.istoria-artei.ro/resources/2017-2018/Art%2003-Teac%C4%83.pdf REFLECTED HISTORY. OCTAV BĂNCILĂ’S PAINTINGS ON 1907 PEASANTS’ REBELLION] by Teacă, Corina, researcher at Bucharest National University of Arts
Following the outbreak of World War I, he became involved in pacifist causes, using his work to comment on the results of conflict.Epure, p.18 In 1916, he was appointed professor at the Fine Arts School in Iași (a position he kept until his retirement in 1937). With Constantin Ion Parhon and Bujor, Băncilă founded, in 1919, the short-lived Laborer Party (Partidul Muncitor), soon fused into the Peasants' Party.Niculae et al., p. 9
He remained critical of social and political developments inside Greater Romania, was supportive of strike actions in the Jiu Valley, and used his art to attack anti-Semitic trends in Romanian society.Epure, p. 20 Towards the end of his life, he began to sympathise with communism (he was not, however, affiliated with the Communist Party of Romania).Frunză, p. 214 Băncilă died in 1944 in Bucharest, at age 72. A street in Iași now bears his name.{{cite web|url=http://orasul.biz/strazi-iasi-is/strada-octav-b%c4%83ncil%c4%83/|title=Strada Octav Băncilă|lang=ro| website=orasul.biz|access-date=December 18, 2023}}
Notes
{{reflist|25em}}
References
- Maria Epure, Octav Băncilă, Editura de Stat pentru Literatură şi Artă, Bucharest, 1956
- Victor Frunză, Istoria stalinismului în România ("The History of Stalinism in Romania"), Humanitas, Bucharest, 1990
- Vasile Niculae, Ion Ilincioiu, Stelian Neagoe, Doctrina țărănistă în România. Antologie de texte ("Peasant Doctrine in Romania. Collected Texts"), Editura Noua Alternativă, Social Theory Institute of the Romanian Academy, Bucharest, 1994
Gallery
Vasile, the butler of the Arizan household.jpg|Vasile (Basil), the butler of the Arizan household, 1897
End of Leave by Octav Băncilă 1898.jpg|End of Leave, 1898
Good Deal by Octav Băncilă 1899.jpg|Good Deal, 1899
Rag Picker by Octav Băncilă 1908.jpg|Rag Picker, 1908
Deserter by Octav Băncilă 1908.jpg|Deserter, 1908
Woman Portrait by Octav Băncilă 1908.jpg|Woman Portrait, 1908
Lost in Calculations by Octav Băncilă.jpg|Lost in Calculations, 1909
The Children of the Painter by Octav Băncilă 1914.jpg|The Children of the Painter, 1914
File:Octav Bancila - Autoportret 00.jpg|Self-portrait
File:Octav Bancila - Prevestirea rascoalei.jpg|The Story (the foretelling) of the 1907 Uprising
File:Octav Bancila - Inainte de 1907.jpg|Before 1907
File:Octav Bancila - Blestemul.jpg|The curse
File:Octav Bancila - 1907.jpg|1907
File:Octav Bancila - Pribeagul.jpg|The wanderer {1910}
File:Octav Bancila - Propagandistul.jpg|The propagandist {1914}
File:Octav Bancila - La sfat.jpg|At a counsel
File:Octav Bancila - Recunoasterea.jpg|The recognition
File:Octav Bancila - Inmormantarea.jpg|The funeral
File:Octav Bancila - Historia.jpg|Historia
External links
{{Commons category}}
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20070311121729/http://www.mab.ro/en/17_20/13en_bancila.htm Short biography] archived from [http://www.mab.ro/en/17_20/13en_bancila.htm the original] on 2007-03-11
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bancila, Octav}}
Category:20th-century Romanian painters
Category:Academy of Fine Arts, Munich alumni
Category:Academic staff of the George Enescu National University of Arts