Nocturnal interior rendered by the light of the lamp, paintings on the front wall, young female character browsing an album with engravings. The work can date from the artist’s French training period, when Grigorescu had come to have the ability to combine the genres of painting into the same image, evincing total mastery over his means of expression. Composition aspects based on artificial lighting, interior with a genre scene, portrait – effigy, elements of still life, they are all concentrated in one place. The expressiveness of contrasts is enhanced by the dialogue between the dark areas and the bright red sources (the seat backrest, the curtain). The porcelain-like finesse of this very young figure creates a counterpoint of white necessary for the entire orchestration.
The work Interesting read was included in Grigorescu’s personal exhibition from 1887, as it was then in the possession of the artist (cat. 120, price 400 lei; without specifying the technique and the size).
This painting is fragmentarily reproduced in Vlahuță (1910) bearing the title Browsing the album, with the indication of the size (80 x 62 cm) and of the owner, Mihail Pherekyde. Grigorescu may have met M. Pherekyde (1842 – 1926), the future liberal politician, in their joint years of studies in Paris. After graduating from Louis Le Grand High School and from the Faculty of Law and Letters in Sorbonne, the future Minister of Justice, Interior, Foreign Affairs, etc., got his doctoral degree in law in Paris (1866). In the year of the Grigorescu Centennial – 1938 – the work was in the possession of jurist Grigore M. Pherekyde (1876 – ?), the politician’s son, being displayed at the Youth Club Salons (1 – 15 June).
Orig.: Mihail Pherekyde Collection, Bucharest (1910); Grigore M. Pherekyde Collection, Bucharest (documented 1938).
