Roman Greco

Roman Greco (born Roman Grécu in 1904 and died in 1989 in Paris) is a French painter of Romanian origin. He is a Montmartrois painter, from the School of Paris, active during the years 1930 to 1970, he found a large part of his inspiration in the landscapes of the Montmartre hill.

Roman Greco
Roman Greco posing in front of the Sacré-coeur
Born
Roman Grécu

1904
Porcești, Austria-Hungary
Died1989
Paris
NationalityRomanian, French
EducationSchool of fina arts of Bucharest, École des beaux-arts de Paris
Known forPainting of Montmartre landscapes
Notable work
Roman Greco - La belle Gabrielle, rue Saint Vincent.jpg
AwardsPrix de Monaco
Websitewww.romangreco.org

Biography

Born in 1904 in Porcești[1], a poor and isolated village in the Carpathian mountains of Romania in the Sibiu area, Roman was the eldest of three in the family of a shoe maker. His father decided that Roman will succeed him and teaches him the job, but he does not like this life, he wants to become a painter: as soon as he can, he cuts himself off to draw or paint on paper, cardboard, wood, walls. One day, the village priest suggests that he decorates a little local church, which he achieves with success.

He is almost twenty-five now and decides to hurry to Bucaresti in order to go in for the competitive exam at the School of Fine Arts. He comes top of the class and studies there for two years. In the second year, again, he wins a competition which offers registration at the School of Fine Arts in Paris together with a year's grant.

Excited by life in Paris, he falls in love with la butte Montmartre and decides to stay there. In order to survive, he has to take odd jobs like sandwich boardman, walk on in some theaters, porter in the food markets and for a few coins, he draws people's portraits at the Place du Tertre next to le Sacré Coeur. In Montmartre, he finds friends who support and accommodate him for a while. He does not paint much because the equipment is expensive, so he sets himself up as a leather tanner and makes all sorts of leather goods[2].

He was married a few years before the war, became a French citizen, and began to sell some paintings. (He signed the paintings as "Greco" because "Grecu" does not sound good to French ears.)

Little by little, he becomes a figure of la butte Montmartre, a regular visitor to "le Lapin Agile" where he comes across Emil Cioran whom he had made friends with at the School of Fine Arts in Bucaresti; their friendship will last until Roman's death in 1989. Among his friends are Bernard Lorjou and Auguste Frémaux with whom he works and shares galleries for exhibitions. Until the late 1970s many of his works are selected for "le salon d'automne" a famous Paris yearly  painting exhibition.

Work

Much of Roman Greco's work finds its inspiration in the landscapes of Montmartre, including more than half of his paintings. His style is similar to his contemporaries at the School of Paris but with a more violent approach. The gallery owner and art critic Vallobra thus analyzes his style in the magazine Apollo for the 1967 autumn fair[3] :

Il m'a été très favorable de pouvoir découvrir et bientôt révéler au grand public, un expressionniste violent, une peintre tragique : Roman-Greco. D'origine roumaine, ce remarquable révolutionnaire de la forme graphico-subjective et de la matière expressive plastico-objective, est en fait un peintre de caractère : un maître. Après sa formation aux Beaux-Arts de Bucarest, il s'installe à Paris, dans un atelier à Montmartre et obtient depuis peu, le Prix de Monaco. Il a exposé avec Bernard Lorjou dans le cadre de sélection au Salon d'automne en 1961... Le dynamisme de sa déformation caractéristique, confirme chez Roman Greco, la maîtrise et l'originalité. Le colorisme non moins puissant, aux accents fauves accuse un peintre de valeur, dont nous avons remarqué La Conquête de l'espace qu'il a présentée au Salon d'Automne et qui a été sélectionnée pour être présentée au Japon. Nous reviendrons sur ce peintre de caractère, qui est appelé à la haute consécration. Vallobra

Private collections

Part of his work is gathered in the private collection held by his descendants, it brings together more than two hundred works, has been digitized and is made available to the public through a website[4] of a catalog raisonné[5] and public exhibitions.

Une partie de son œuvre se trouve rassemblée au sein de la collection privée tenue par sa descendance, elle rassemble plus de deux cents œuvres, a été numérisée et est mise à disposition du public à travers un site web[6]d'un catalogue raisonné et d'expositions publiques[7].

The work consists mainly of oils on canvas and drawings. It is classified as follows:

Roman Greco - House of La Belle Gabrielle, rue Saint-Vincent in Montmartre - oil on canvas - 50x61 - 1962


Exhibitions

It is not easy to carefully reconstruct the course of the painter, although he was very regularly exhibited as evidenced by the posters and articles found in the archives of his descendants.

Notes and references
  1. "Q43113555". www.wikidata.org. Retrieved 2020-02-24.
  2. "Roman Greco la biographie". Roman Greco. Retrieved 2020-02-26.
  3. "Archives". Roman Greco (in French). Retrieved 2020-02-24.
  4. "L'oeuvre retrouvée du Peintre Roman Greco". Roman Greco. Retrieved 2020-02-26.
  5. "Catalogue Raisonné du peintre Roman GRECO" (PDF). www.romangreco.org.
  6. "Montmartre". Roman Greco. Retrieved 2020-03-04.
  7. "Expositions Roman Greco". Roman Greco. Retrieved 2020-02-26.
  8. "Montmartre". Roman Greco. Retrieved 2020-02-26.
  9. "Still lifes". Roman Greco. Retrieved 2020-02-26.
  10. "Churches". Roman Greco. Retrieved 2020-02-26.
  11. "Drawings, Indian inks". Roman Greco. Retrieved 2020-02-26.
  12. "Various sketches, essays". Roman Greco. Retrieved 2020-02-26.
  13. "Drawings, Indian inks". Roman Greco. Retrieved 2020-03-04.
  14. "Archives". Roman Greco (in French). Retrieved 2020-03-04.
  15. "Salon d'automne", Wikipédia (in French), 2020-03-04, retrieved 2020-03-04
  16. "Archives". Roman Greco (in French). Retrieved 2020-03-04.
  17. birklaszlo, birkmayer (2017-09-04). "collect lightbox v1 (protocols.io.jpvcmn6)". protocols.io. Retrieved 2020-03-04.


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