Iulia Hălăucescu

Iulia Hălăucescu kept a small notebook in her coat pocket, jotting down the exact blue of a winter lake or the slant of light on a plow blade while walking home from the village. She painted the same Bistrița river bend so often that locals started pointing it out when they spotted her easel. Drop into any Romanian village in the early 1900s and ask where to see the “plowman in the snow,” and someone will walk you to one of her canvases—try Țapinar (Plutașul pe Bistrița) if the gallery tour feels too quiet.