Situated in the Small Market Decebal of the municipality Medgidia, this work of art was finalized in the year 1933 by the famous sculptor from Dobrogea, Ion Jalea (1887 – 1983). The statue represents a woman who sings at a harp, whose cords haven’t been represented, leaving them, in a certain way, to have a natural part, either the water, which is dripping on the statue when it rains, or the wind which blows, shaping a metaphorical connection between the sculpture object and the environment.
Ion Jalea (born on the 19th of May 1887, Casimcea, county of Tulcea – deceased on the 7th of November 1983) was a Romanian sculptor, titular member of the Romanian Academy. He participated at the First World War, where he lost his left hand in the fight and he had to sculpt his entire life only with his right hand.
After he graduates in 1908 the School of Arts and Crafts, he attends the studies of the Academy of Beaux – Arts from Bucharest, having as teachers the sculptors Frederick Storck and Dimitrie Paciurea. He completes his artistic training at Paris, at the Julian Academy, in the workshop of Antoine Bourdelle. He receives the Grand Prize of the International Exhibits from Paris and from Barcelona, the National Award for Sculpture (1941), the State Award (1957) and – in the same year – the title of Artist of the People. Starting with 1956 he functioned as an active president of the Union of Plastic Artists from Romania.
The Sculptor Ion Jalea is the author of numerous monuments, statues, busts, reliefs, allegorical compositions. At the base of his vision there lies the cult for shape as a result of observing the reality – especially the human figure – and the tendency of incorporating some fantastic morphologies evocating the ancient mythology. His sculptures have an idealized sense, the author constantly pointing towards the glorification of some facts or significant personalities from the historical experience.
In his compositions, Ion Jalea follows the classical laws of balance, of the harmonious reports between the parts, of the dosage of the dynamic elements – gestures, ascending or descending diagonals – in a coherent and static ensemble. A synthesis of his capabilities, of the perfect combining between the realistic and the allegoric level, of the science of arranging the dynamic and static tensions is offered to us in the composition Archer resting, his most representative work, created in 1926.
On the 19th of March 2009, the President of Romania, Traian Băsescu, visited the Court of Justice of the European Communities, on which occasion there took place the inauguration ceremony of the bronze copy of the work of art “Archer resting”, sculpture by Ion Jalea, donation of the Romanian state to the Court of Justice from Luxemburg.
A large number of Ion Jalea’s sculptures are found in the Memorial Museum “Ion Jalea”, a section of the Art Museum from Constanța, which comprises the collection ”Ion Jalea”. The collection was inaugurated in August 1968 and was constituted on the donation of the sculptor Ion Jalea. It groups 227 works, among which 119 entered in the patrimony, in the year 1985.
