Lucia Demetriade Bălăcescu

Background

Bălăcescu was born in Bucharest, Romania, on January 22, 1895. She was the daughter of Commander Petre Demetriade.

Education

Lucia Bălăcescu was close to painting since childhood. She initially studied under the supervision of such painters as Gh. Petrascu and Eustatie Stoenescu. In 1913 she entered the Buser Institute in Switzerland, and in 1915 the School of Belle Arte in Bucharest, where she was taught by Ipolit Strâmbulescu and Dimitrie Serafim. After her graduation, Bălăcescu took private lessons from Eustatiu Stoenescu and Gheorghe Petrascu.

Bălăcescu attended Académie Julian (now ESAG Penninghen), Académie de la Grande Chaumière, Académie Moderne, and Académie Ranson for four years, all located in Paris. There she had a chance to meet great artists, including Pedro Coreja D'Arnja, Othon Friesz and Fritz Gilsi.

Career

Bălăcescu held her first personal exhibition in Bucharest in 1919. Then with the help of Olga Greceanu and Nina Arbore, she organized a solo exhibit in 1926, presenting landscapes, still lifes and nudes in gouache, pastel as well as watercolour. These works were lately presented abroad as well. Starting from the 1950s, Lucia Bălăcescu mostly used oil technique in her painting.

In addition to painting on canvas, Lucia Bălăcescu also made illustrations for Minulescu and Arghezi books, for Boccaccio's Decameron (more than 200 illustrations) and for various newspapers (At the moment, the Literary Universe, Timpul).

She debuted as a publicist with the work "Time" in 1937. She also took part in the creation of "Le Moment", "Bis", "Weather", "Astra".

Achievements

• Lucia Bălăcescu was a prominent painter, known not only in Romania but also in foreign countries. In 1929 she received the bronze medal at the Barcelona International Exhibition. In 1939 Bălăcescu created illustrations for poems by Ch. Baudelaire, for which she received the Romanian Academy Award.
  
  Among her important works are "Scheherazade", "Square Bucharest", "Curiosity", "Houses in Bucharest", "Mangalia". For her contribution to Romanian art and its promotion abroad, Lucia Bălăcescu received the "Ioan Andreescu" prize from the Romanian Academy in 1974.

Works

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• painting

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  • Cityscape

  • Mangalia veche

  • Negocieri

  • Promenada pariziană

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  • Șalvarii galbeni

  • Scenă sătească

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  • În parc

  • Natură statică cu ciclamene, stampe și evantai

  • Canceu cu lalele şi mărgele albastre

  • Joc

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  • Munci de primăvară

  • Femeie cu evantai

  • La gare de Berk-Plage

  • Lacul Fundeni

  • Promenadă prin Iași

  • Green Garden of Mangalia

  • The Village seen from the Hill

  • On the Porch

  • In the Park, in Galati

  • Vedere din Mangalia

  • Nud cu mărgele

  • Papagal și mere

  • Cochetărie

  • Mama şi fiica

  • The music lesson

  • Vedere din Cişmigiu

  • Walking on the Alleys

  • Sailor in the Sulina harbor

Connections

Father:

Petre Demetriade

References

• Personalitati feminine contemporane din Romania. Dictionar biografic (Romanian Edition)