Romanian painter and graphic artist, Mișu Teișanu trained at the Académie Julian in Paris, at the time a more permissive alternative to the École des Beaux-Arts. The academy's faculty included Bouguereau, Baschet, and Toulouse, and its alumni ranged from Mucha, Derain, Dubuffet, and Matisse to Romanians Ion Andreescu and Camil Ressu. His early oils reveal an unexpected affinity with the Viennese Secession and Munich Jugendstil, a sensibility that sits at odds with his French training and points to a more complex pictorial formation than his later career would suggest.

Upon returning to Bucharest, Teișanu oriented his practice toward an affluent and culturally moderate clientele, specializing in pastels depicting reclining female figures in orientalizing interiors. This commercial alignment, while ensuring social stability, is generally considered to have constrained the development of a more rigorous artistic identity. He also served as director of the Muzeul Aman.

His most significant contributions lie in the domain of cultural graphics: the illustrated portfolio for Eminescu's Luceafărul (produced between 1921 and 1923 in a limited edition of 250 copies), illustrations for Ion Barbu's După Melci, and volumes of fairy tales by Queen Maria. These works secured his reputation in applied art, though critical opinion has tended to view that reputation as having overshadowed, somewhat undeservedly, the quality of his earlier easel painting.