Friday, March 17, 2017

228. The Museum of Romanian Art Collections



I am finding Bucharest a city of unique 19th and 20th century architecture and a city with a great collection of superb art galleries – making my stay here quite exhausting as I stagger from exciting gallery to the next with the odd day off in between …

Today I’ll take you to the The Museum of Romanian Art Collections and share with you just a few of the thousands of paintings on show. This gallery is a branch of the National Museum of Art of Romania and is situated in the Romanit Palace ( which dates back to the early 1800s ). The museum opened in June 2013.

 

The museum contains 44 collections donated to the Romanian State beginning in 1927 by the families of: Hurmuz Aznavorian, Dumitru and Maria Ştefănescu, Josefina and Eugen Taru, Emanoil Romulus Anca and Ortansa Dinulescu Anca, Garabet Avakian, Mircea Petrescu and Artemiza Petrescu, Sandu Lieblich, Sică Alexandrescu, Clara and Anatol E. Baconsky, Sorin Schächter, Céline Emilian, Marcu Beza – Hortensia and Vasile Beza, Alexandra and Barbu Slătineanu, Béatrice and Hrandt Avakian.


The Museum covers three floors in three wings of the Palace – yes a lot of walking – and the exhibitions are not chronologically curated, but rather as collections … and in this post I am just listing the names of the artists - not titles etc ...




 detail ...

 detail ...


Corneliu Baba - 1906-1977
 
 Corneliu Baba

 Corneliu Baba


 Corneliu Baba


Alexandru Phoebus - 1899-1954
 
 Alexandru Phoebus

 Alexandru Phoebus

 Alexandru Phoebus



"Eddie Everywhere" 
can't resist a selfie in a mirror ... 
 
 Alexandru Phoebus

 Gheorghe Petrascu - 1872-1949

Francisc Sirato - 1877-1953


 Stephan Lucian - 1868-1916


 Nicolae Grigorescu - 1838-1907

 detail ...

 Nicolae Grigorescu


 Nicolae Grigorescu

 Nicolae Grigorescu
 
 Francisc Sirato

  Nicolae Grigorescu

 Deft vase - late 19th C

 Nicolae Vermont - 1886-1936


 Alexandru Ciucurencu - 1903-1977

 Radu Dragoescu - 1914-1999

  Nicolae Grigorescu

 Dem. Iordache - 1905-1983


  Nicolae Grigorescu



 Max W Arnold - 1897-1946



 Magdalena Radulescu - 1902-1983

 Alexandru Padina - 1904-1992

  Nicolae Grigorescu

 Nicolae Grigorescu
 
  Nicolae Grigorescu




 George Dimetrescu Mirea - 1854-1934

Costin Petrescu - 1871-1954
 
Louise  Perman - 1863-1921



 Ludwig Adam Kunz - 1857-1929

 detail ...

 Antonio Rosetti - 1750-1792


The museum basement hosts stone carved items of old Romanian art, among which are a few pieces extracted from Văcărești Monastery, demolished in 1986 at Nicolae Ceausescu's order.
 

The original portion of Romanit Palace was erected for the early 19th-century Romanian aristocrat C. Faca. Faca died before it was completed, and it was sold to a Greek named Romanit. The Romanian writer Ion Ghica (1816-1897) wrote about the luxurious interior in his memoir: "... the walls of all the chambers stuccoed, imitating the rarest and most beautiful marble, the ceilings of a rare wealth and taste... The chambers all winter bedding with rich carpets from Usack and Agem and in summer with fine mats from India; coverings and thick silk curtains from Damascus and Aleppo. Chairs and sofas, all mahogany and ebony, inlaid with mother-of-pearl, and gilded bronze figures dressed in Cordova leather. In all the chambers, chandeliers hung from ceilings with garlands between doors and windows, all of Venetian crystal."

After Romanit died in 1834, the building was rented 1834-1842 by Prince Alexandru II Ghica, who established a chancery there, where people could come to register complaints. In 1836, the building was purchased by the State, used first as an administrative office for the Court but in the second half of the 19th century as the seat of the Ministry of Finance. As the Ministry came to need more space, the two wings were added, leading to the 'U' shape of the building today.



In my next post I’m off to visit one of my favourite haunts …


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