[2] The art collector Krikor Zambaccian [ro], whom Tonitza befriended after 1925, indicated that, during its existence, Iașul sided with the Conservative Party, opposing Romania's entry into World War I.

[14] The same year, he took Camil Ressu's defense during a scandal involving the latter's design for a National Theater curtain, attacking the artistic guidelines advocated by the cultural establishment ("[Romania is] the country where scientist historians compose erotic pieces and embarrassing rhymes, [...] where intellectual women draw the gusty gestures of decrepit election agents, [...] where physicians push their rusty hypodermics into the unmentionable muscle tissues of artists as a means to draw up aesthetical logarithms").

[15] He met success in 1925, after opening a large exhibit of his Vălenii de Munte paintings in Bucharest, while raising controversy (including criticism from Ressu) over his "poster-like" style.

According to Zambaccian, Tonitza's early association with socialism was partly due to the interest taken in him by the leftist press, who was willing to reward his contributions at a time when "one could not live solely by painting".

[4] The same source stated that the artist later refrained from expressing political opinions, and, on one occasion during the 1930s, jokingly referred to himself as "a supporter of Petre P. Carp"[5] (the Conservative leader had died in 1919).

Owing much to the art of his predecessor Ştefan Luchian,[19] Tonitza was largely inspired by Impressionism,[20] but he equally admired the discoveries made by Post-impressionist artists (their revolution in composition and Belle Époque splendor).

[21] Tonitza was notably critical of Nicolae Grigorescu, the major trend-setter in Romanian art, whose success over "peasant motifs", he stated, had "lured him to remain, for the rest of his life, in this rosy and light-hearted atmosphere".

[5] He equally objected to Grigorescu's influence over younger generations, which had led to "mannerism" and "nationalism" in choice of subjects,[5] and the emergent urbane art ("where man shall represent only a decorative and amusing accessory").

[5] Evidencing his "tormented life" and "fantasy-driven and bohemian lifestyle", Zambaccian wondered if these had not been the source of Tonitza's "ingenious art, full of chromatic joys that are nonetheless transited by melancholia".

[4] An admirer of both Frans Masereel and Käthe Kollwitz,[22] he also adapted Expressionist guidelines — ones especially present in his satirical drawings, but also manifested large works such as Coadă la pâine ("Queuing for Bread", 1920).

[26] This message is most obvious in his Northern Dobruja landscapes, his still life studies, the portraits of clowns (celebrated for their way of sublimating the comic and grotesque elements in masks and makeup, in order to reveal a sad humanity),[27] young women and children.