Ipolit Strâmbu

Ipolit Strâmbu (born Ipolit Strâmbulescu, 1871-1934) was a Romanian painter best known for his portraits of women, which range from domestic scenes to nudes. His work belongs to late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Romania, and he matters as one of the figures who shaped the academic and realist painting of his country.

He was born in Bratilovu, in Mehedinți County, the son of a shepherd. He trained in Bucharest with Theodor Aman and George Demetrescu Mirea at the National School of Fine Arts. In 1891 Nicolae Grigorescu encouraged him to exhibit at the Romanian Athenaeum and became his patron. After graduating, his income proved insufficient, and he briefly taught drawing in Craiova before winning a scholarship to study in Munich with Carl von Marr. In 1901 he joined the National School as a professor, and that same year he helped found Tinerimea Artistică, a group that championed realist art centred on ordinary people and peasant life.

He exhibited widely in the 1910s and 1920s, including at the Venice Biennale of 1924 and the 1925 International Exposition of Modern Industrial and Decorative Arts in Paris. He wrote textbooks and drawing manuals and helped organise the National Museum of Folk Art. He died in Bucharest in 1934. Although his conservative style had fallen out of fashion, retrospectives were held in Craiova in 1971 and in Drobeta-Turnu Severin in 1984. Among his best-known works are Maternity, Second Thoughts, Country Girl, Young Woman Reading and Coquetry.