Fair Maidens: The Feminine Ideal in Romanian Art from Nicolae Grigorescu to Ion Grigorescu

The catalog “Fair Maidens. The Feminine Ideal from Nicolae Grigorescu to Ion Grigorescu”, which accompanied the temporary exhibition of the same name, maps out the ideal representations of femininity in Romanian art from the mid-19th century to the present day. The feminine ideal is catalyzed socially, politically, archetypally, and erotically, representing the culmination of distinct stages. It can be a reverie or, conversely, an impasse of reverie. The ideal mediates between the naming that indexes the woman and the status/situation that she represents, between exceptional quality and the anxiety induced by this exceptionality.