View Towards the Port 

Nicolae Darascu painted this oil on canvas titled "View Towards the Port" sometime in the first half of the 20th century. Darascu was Romanian, and his style incorporated elements of Post-Impressionism. As a historian, I’m particularly struck by how this painting negotiates the relationship between interiority and exteriority, between private life and the public world. We see a still life of fruit and decorative objects set against a background of rooftops and a distant port. The composition could be read as a comment on Romania’s place in the wider world, especially given its history of foreign domination and influence. Was Darascu expressing a desire for a sense of belonging? To better understand this painting, I would want to research the specific port Darascu depicts, as well as the social and political conditions in Romania during his lifetime. Art doesn’t exist in a vacuum and it is contingent on social and institutional context.