Petre Mateescu

Petre Mateescu kept a sharp eye on the people around him, especially the women who quietly shaped their worlds. In 1876 he set down one of those women on canvas—Dora D’Istria, a writer who published under a borrowed name and traveled in disguise. Look for the way he painted her with a book in one hand and a worldly gaze in the other, as if to say, “I’m both here and everywhere else.”