Ever since his training period in Barbizon, probably due to his affinity with Corot’s lyricism, Grigorescu was drawn to the poetry of the nightfall, when nature seems to be still in silence, in contrast to the noise of the day.
The diagonal of the horizon line with the last reddish glimpses of the sun sunk behind the hill, separates the dark earth from the sky, seen as a source of light, through a dialogue of contrasts. The obvious and decisive horizon line is matched by the delicate and finely drawn miniature diagonal (forming an X with the horizon line) of the draw beam of the well, projected against the sky.
The image is taken from the Romanian rural world, being certified by several ethnography pieces – the well with the draw beam, the braided wooden fence – as well as by the discreet, minuscule silhouette of the peasant woman wearing a black skirt and a red scarf (a point of colour placed from the tip of the brush) who watches the moment of the cattle drinking water, a life element of the composition, a scene from the work of the country woman, at nightfall.
The work may date back to 1870, based on the romantic approach to the scene with the peasant woman and on the use of the above-mentioned contrasts.
Orig.: Casa d’Aste – Capitolium Art – Italy.
