Background
Octav Bancila was born on February 4, 1872 in Corni, Botoșani, Romania. He remained an orphan at age 4, and was raised in Iaşi by his much older sister and her husband, who first encouraged Octav's talent and passion for art.
Octav Bancila was born on February 4, 1872 in Corni, Botoșani, Romania. He remained an orphan at age 4, and was raised in Iaşi by his much older sister and her husband, who first encouraged Octav's talent and passion for art.
After completing primary school, he entered the Fine Arts School in Iaşi, where he was taught by Gheorghe Panaiteanu Bardasare, Constantin Daniel Stahi, and Emanoil 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).
He attempted to open a studio in downtown Iaşi, 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.
After 1901, he taught calligraphy and art in primary schools in the city. 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.
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.
In 1916, he was appointed professor at the Fine Arts School in Iaşi (a position he kept until his retirement in 1937).
Lilac Boughs
Flowers
Basket with Apples
Self-Portrait (detail)
Confession of the Peasant (Composition with Self-Portrait)
Portrait of King Carol I (of Romania)
Old Man
Rag Picker
Peasant Woman
Gypsy Woman with Red Headscarf
Watermelon
Wine Drinkers
Poppies
Gypsy Woman with Red Scarf
Jewish Portrait
Agapia Valley
Peasant with Pipe
Agricultural Labour
The Defector
Strawberries
The Gipsy Tent
Apple Blossoms
Field Flowers
Gipsy Woman
Gypsy Woman with Necklace and Pipe
Vase with Violets
Jew From Targu Cucu
Still Life with Fruits
Still Life with Apples
End of Leave
Still Life with Peaches
The Children of the Painter
Countryside Houses
The Yellow Headscarf
Music Lesson
Vase with Lilac
Imperial Gladiolus
Peasant Woman with a Jar
Self-Portrait
Jewish People Talking in Targu Cucu
Good Deal
Peasant Woman
Lost in Calculations
Vase with Field Flowers
Portrait
Following the outbreak of World War I, he became involved in pacifist causes, using his work to comment on the results of conflict.
With Constantin Ion Parhon and Bujor, Băncilă founded, in 1919, the short-lived Laborer Party (Partidul Muncitor), soon fused into the Peasants' Party.
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. Towards the end of his life, he became to sympathise with communism (he was not, however, affiliated with the Communist Party of Romania).