After graduating from the Academy of Fine Arts in Iași, the painter Octav Băncilă continues his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich with some of the most outstanding German masters, being influenced to a great extent by Fritz von Uhde, Fritz Mackensen, Franz von Lenbach and the Realism movement in painting. Octav Băncilă was one of the first realist painters of his era, exhibiting a specific interest in scenes of uprisings and wars, being known as “The painter of the 1907 Uprising”. He dedicated numerous series to depicting workers and peasants, using his characters to explore the nature of various ethnic groups in Romania. Băncilă formed his own distinctive style characterised by vibrant brushstrokes and a chromatic palette that bestowed a unique luminosity upon his works.

The work Maternity (1923) is indicative of Băncilă’s skillful and critically-inclined depictions of village life, as well as his candid, compassionate portrayals of femininity. Maternity shows the artist’s impressive capacity to convey emotion through colour, light, as well as the portrayed characters’ clothing, gestures, and facial expressions. Through these means, the painting manages to suggest a complex affective landscape to the viewer, encapsulating warmth, struggle, playfulness, and simplicity.