230. A Swoon over the National Collection

The National Museum of Art of Romania is located in a very grand former royal palace in Revolution Square, central Bucharest. The building of the Palace was completed in 1837 and it was used as a royal residence until the early 20^th C. After the end of the first world war the Palace was then taken over by the state and remained virtually unused until  the mid 1900’s when the Gallery was established.

The museum was damaged during the 1989 Romanian Revolution that led to the downfall of Nicolae Ceaușescu and it remained closed until 2000 when part of the museum reopened to the public. Renovations of the buildings over the past two decades has now been complted and the glorious national art collection is now accessible. 

The state collection features medieval and modern Romanian art, as well as the international collection assembled by the Romanian royal family. There are also two halls that house temporary exhibits.

 

The Museum is a huge collection of thousands of artworks beautifully curated in dozens of separate galleries on all three floors of the Palace complex. I purchased a weekly pass to visit this museum ( plus three other museums that house more of the state collection ), so with my pass, I was able to view this expanse of museum over a full day with a lunch break in the middle of the day.

Here is just a very small portion of artworks that took my fancy - from both the European collection and the Romanian collection. ( Two other large galleries were taken up with a comprehensive Medieval religious art collection, featuring works salvaged from monasteries destroyed during the Ceaușescu era – but I have not included these works in this blog post. ).

Venus and Cupid - Bronzino - 16th C

The Three Graces - Nans von Aachen - 16th C

Mystical Marriage of Saint Catherine - 16th C

Martydom of Saint Maurice - El Greco - 16th C

Adorattion of the Shepherds - El Greco

 

The Holy Family - Frans Floris - 16th C

This painting caught my eye because of the pussy cat eyeing off the pidgeon ... you never see cats in paintings and as a lover of felines, this was quite a surprise ... in fact further on I found two more paintings with a cats ...

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  Saint John - Colijn de Coter - 15th C
 

Little Girl with a Cat - Geldorp Gortzius - 16th C

Four Seasons - Pieter Breughel the Younger - 16th C

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Virgin and Child with St John - Jacob van Oost - 17th C
 

Fishing Boats - Claude Monet - 19th C

The Kiss - Auguste Rodin - 19th C

The Bronze Age - Auguste Rodin

Orchard in Blossom - Camille Pissarro - 19th C

 

Young Girl with Cat - Charles Chaplin - 19th C

The NMA has many beautiful sweeping marble hallways and grand staircases leading from floor to floor and gallery to gallery ...

 

 

 Young Man - Nicolae Popescu - 19th C

 

  Fruit Basket - Theodore Aman - 19th C

 

Sewing - Nicolae Grigorescu - 19th C

Peasant Woman - Nicolae Grigorescu

Woman in the Garden - Nicolae Grigorescu

Young Woman - Nicolae Vermont - 20th C

Portrait of a Woman - Costin Petrescu - 20th C
 

Alexandru Odebescu - George Mirea - 20th C
 

White Flowers - Eustatiu Stoenescu - 20th C

Portrait - Merica Ramniceanu - 20th C

Railway Station - Lascar Vorel - 20th C

Woman with Eggs - Marcel Iancu - 20th C

Veiled Nude - Max Maxy - 20th C

Al. Dominic - Max Maxy - 20th C

Young Girl in Blue - Francisc Sirato - 20th C
 

Landscape - Alexandru Ziffer - 20th C

Impetus - Aurel Popp - 20th C

Nature Morte - Nicolae Furduescu - 20th C

The Chess Player - Corneliu Baba - 20th C

Wow - well that's just a tiny glimpse of the amazing collection at the National Museum of Art - one of the most "swoonable" galleries I have ever set foot in ...