inspired Nicolae Grigorescu to paint three paintings

We have been using the 10 lei banknote for years, but has anyone ever stopped to analyze the second side of it? Certainly few have taken the time to study the elements as well as the images.

You may have noticed that on the second side there is an image of a woman dressed in folk costume, with a headdress on her head and a bowl resting on her left shoulder.

The girl who inspired the painter Nicolae Grigorescu, currently immortalized on the 10 lei banknote

The image is inspired by a painting signed by the famous Nicolae Grigorescu, and the woman who was the artist’s muse appeared in not one, but three paintings, as follows: Rodica, Rodica la Pârâu and Primavara.

The National Bank of Romania, through the Directorate of Issuance, Treasury and Cashiery, determines, as a rule, which personalities appear on Romanian banknotes. Therefore, the BNR issued a press release in which it reported details about the woman’s origin, intended to quell the curiosity of all those who wondered, at least by accident, what the story is about the image on the back of the 10 lei banknote.

“The 10 lei banknote with Nicolae Grigorescu also features ‘Rodica’, a painting that belongs to the National Bank and is in the boardroom. Here, for example, we can be accused of subjectivism, but it is something natural. You can’t make the atlas of Romanian personalities on banknotes (…) The National Bank also aims to promote the history, culture and civilization of Romania”, said Mugur Şteţ, the former spokesperson of the BNR for Adevărul.ro.

So, it goes without saying that this simple woman, from the country, left her mark on the great Nicolae Grigorescu, enough for him to immortalize her in at least three paintings, thus becoming a national symbol both through the prism of the paintings made by the artist, but also a little more recently, through the NBR’s decision to apply his image on a banknote – perhaps the most used banknote nowadays.

Nicolae Grigorescu, one of the most appreciated Romanian painters of all time

Nicolae Grigorescu was born on May 15, 1838in Pitaru, Potlogi, Dâmbovița and died in the month July of 1907at Câmpina, Prahova.

He is the first of the founders of modern Romanian painting, followed by Ion Andreescu and Ștefan Luchian. Nicolae Grigorescu became a symbol for the young generations of artists who, in the first decades of the 20th century, sought to identify and bring to light the values ​​of Romanian spirituality.

On April 29, 2013, 175 years after the birth of the painter, the National Bank of Romania put into circulation a commemorative coin, with a face value of 10 lei, for numismatic purposes.

The coin is made of silver, with the title 999‰, it is round, with a diameter of 37 mm and a weight of 31.103 g. The entire mintage of the coin, of 500 copies, is issued in proof quality, and the edge of the coin is serrated.

Each coin, packed in a transparent methacrylate capsule, is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity and a brief presentation in Romanian, English and French of the artist’s life and work, Wikipedia informs.