HORIA VLADIMIR ṢERBĂNESCU
Un album de acuarele inedit realizat de Carol Pop de Szathmári, înfăţișând armata otomană în Bucureștii anului revoluționar 1848
Abstract
The artistic and photographic work of Carol Szathmári (1812–1887) is generally well known, the Transylvanian artist being appreciated both by his photographic work, having the initiative to record the first photographic images during the Crimean War, and by his long artistic activity, enjoying by the status of official photographer and artist of the princely court. On the occasion of the events dedicated to the 200th anniversary of Carol Szathmári’s birth, it was considered that his artistic and photographic work is well known and studied and that there would be no surprises regarding his creation. However, during the research on the battle of Dealul Spirii, on September 13, 1848, a series of extremely interesting images emerged, made by Carol Szathmári in the autumn of 1848, at the beginning of his career in the Romanian principalities, which represented types by Ottoman soldiers, depicted in different attitudes, in Bucharest and its surroundings. These Ottoman soldiers, who belonged to units of the Ottoman Imperial Guard, were part of the sultan’s troops who had entered Bucharest on the occasion of the suppression of the revolutionary movement in 1848, in Wallachia and who participated in the confrontation with the Romanian troops at the barracks in Dealul Spirii, of September 13, 1848.
The 25 watercolors made by Carol Szathmári, completely unknown until now, are kept in the collection of The State Hermitage Museum, in St. Petersburg, being probably made at the request of a high-ranking officer of the tsarist troops, who arrived in the Romanian principalities to put end of the Revolution of 1848. These works, very well done from an artistic point of view, give extremely valuable information about the uniforms, insignia of rank, equipment and armament of the Ottoman troops of that period. The paper analyzes in detail the respective drawings, both from an artistic point of view and from the information they provide. By the fact this artwork is made by an important Romanian artist and it depicts, even in the background, aspects of the Wallachian capital and its surroundings around the events of 1848, the set of watercolor paintings by Carol Szathmári is an extremely valuable historical-documentary source.
Keywords: Carol Szathmári, watercolor paintings, Ottoman army, Bucharest, Dealul Spirii, Revolution of 1848, State Hermitage Museum
RALUCA PARTENIE
Repere decorative în arhitectura civilă interioară, la cumpăna veacurilor XVIII–XIX
Abstract
The present study refers to the vernacular urban architecture in the Romanian Countries, from the end of the 18th century and the first half of the 19th century, with an emphasis on the interior decoration of the homes of middle-class townspeople – a rising social category of the time. By studying this construction sector, I aim to bring to attention the diversity of solutions used. Different styles mingled in a constant change: the decorative elements of the brâncovenesc style were interpreted within a simpler – even naïve – craft art, while Ottoman Oriental influences grew progressively throughout the 18th century. The architecture was mainly traditional, but popular elements of the interiors were stucco wall decorations, the Ottoman bovindo – sacnasiu, the Turkish sofa, Balkan/Ottoman carved wooden ceilings, Oriental small decorative metal objects, carpets (traditional Romanian or Ottoman) and more. During the Phanariot era, Romanian urban society experienced a strong orientalization, followed by the abandonment of Ottoman influences, in order to change direction quickly and completely towards western Europe.
Keywords: 18th century, 19th century, decorative arts, interior architecture, vernacular Romanian urban architecture, Phanariot era, wooden ceilings, stucco decoration, Ottoman ewer, incense burner, Turkish brazier
ADRIAN-SILVAN IONESCU
Horia Igiroșanu, cronicar de artă pe nedrept uitat
Abstract
Horia Igiroșanu (1896-1960), sculptor and promoter of the specialized press dedicated to cinematographic art - in which he manifested himself as one of the important pioneers of Romanian film - is almost unknown as an art columnist. In addition to his work at the Free Academy of Painting, Sculpture and Decorative Arts of the “Fine Arts” Association, in 1923 he founded and managed a cultural magazine, Clipa, subtitled Theatrical, Artistic, Musical and Literary, for which he obtained the patronage of Queen Elizabeth of Greece, daughter of Queen Maria and King Ferdinand I.
In the pages of this well-illustrated and well-informed magazine, Igiroșanu signed the fine arts column and commented on the work of many important or mediocre artists, criticizing or praising, as the case may be. Endowed with an inspired and alert pen he not infrequently launched into polemics and was particularly combative, especially when it came to institutionalized art or the avant-garde that manifested itself, at that time, with great aplomb. His magazine became, in a short time, an opinion sheet and a platform from which the disaffected - Igiroșanu in the first place - could express their opposition to the official trends in the national cultural movement.
Keywords: Fine Arts School, Free Academy of Painting, Sculpture and Decorative, G. D. Mirea, Arthur Verona, Nicolae Vermont, Oscar Walter Cisek, Tudor Vianu, Ion Vinea, Marcel Iancu, Max Herman Maxy, Victor Brauner, Horațiu Dimitriu
EDUARD ANDREI
Opere de artă pierdute/redescoperite. Valori ale patrimoniului cultural românesc la Expoziţia Universală de la New York 1939–1940
Abstract
The participation of Romania in the 1939-1940 New York World’s Fair (organized under the unifying theme “The World of Tomorrow”), coordinated by Commissioner General Dimitrie Gusti, marked a stellar moment in the representation of Romanianness. Two iconic buildings, “The Romanian Pavilion” (the work of architect and prince G.M. Cantacuzino), and “The Romanian House” (projected by architect Octav Doicescu), were erected at the site of the event and hosted an impressive collection of Romanian fine and decorative art, meant to illustrate national identity and the evolution of Romanian art. The collection comprised of works of the most important artists of late 19th century and 20th century, such as: paintings by Th. Aman, N. Grigorescu, I. Andreescu, Th. Pallady, Gh. Petrașcu, N. Tonitza, Francisc Șirato, Arthur Verona, I. Theodorescu-Sion, Lucian Grigorescu, Marius Bunescu, N. Dărăscu, N. Vermont, Rodica Maniu, Samuel Mützner; sculptures by Cornel Medrea, Oscar Han, Mihai Onofrei, Mac Constantinescu, Milița Petrașcu, I. Jalea; monumental and decorative art by Olga Greceanu, Dem Demetrescu, Lena Constante, Nora Steriadi, Paul Miracovici, Petre Grant, Al. Mazilescu (together with religious artifacts and folk art).
With the outbreak of WWII, the artworks showed at the World’s Fair never returned to Romania. The collection was dispersed in several places in the USA. A large number of works (sculptures, mosaics, furniture, ceramics) ended up at “St. Mary” Romanian Orthodox Cathedral of Cleveland, OH. As for the paintings, they were considered lost forever. My paper will present, for the first time, the fate of two of the paintings: Întoarcerea de la târg (Return from the Country Fair) by Francisc Șirato and Spartul Horei (Last Spin at a Hora) / Joc (Folk Dance) by Arthur Verona. I discovered them at the Romanian Orthodox Parish “St. Dumitru”, Manhattan. The church was dedicated to St. Dumitru as an homage to Dimitrie Gusti, and was consecrated on July 23, 1939 in a ceremony followed by luncheon at the “Romanian Pavilion”. The two masterpieces are representative of the Romanian national propaganda at the Fair.
Keywords: New York World’s Fair, Francisc Șirato, Arthur Verona, Dimitrie Gusti, G.M. Cantacuzino, Romanian Orthodox Parish “St. Dumitru”, Manhattan
HILARY ROBERTS
Florence Farmborough’s Photographs of the Russian Front during the First World War
Abstract
This article offers a rare insight into the Russian experience of the First World War from a British woman’s perspective. Florence Farmborough (1887 – 1978) was a British nurse, photographer, writer, university lecturer and traveller. In 1908, aged 21, Farmborough travelled to Russia where she worked as a governess in Kyiv, Ukraine, before moving to Moscow. Here she taught English to the daughters of Dr Pavel Usov, a Russian heart surgeon. When war broke out 1914, Farmborough trained as a Red Cross nurse at the Golitsyn military hospital in Moscow. She subsequently served with a Russian mobile army surgical hospital on the Russian front in Poland, Austria and Romania until the Bolshevik revolution forced her to flee Russia in 1918. Farmborough documented these experiences as a photographer and diarist. Her collection is now preserved by Imperial War Museums, Britain’s national museum of modern conflict.
Keywords: War photography, Women photographers, First World War, Medicine, Russian Front
THEODOR E. ULIERIU-ROSTÁS,
“A Photographic Studio according to the Adjoined Plan”. New Archival Sources for the History of Photography in Nineteenth-Century Bucharest
Abstract
This paper presents the first results of an ongoing survey of photographers and photographic studios in 19th and early 20th-century archival records created by the municipality of Bucharest, Romania. Following the gradual development of urban regulations in the 1830s and 1840s, any construction work carried out within the boundaries of the city was subjected to a formal building permission handled by the municipal architect, and later by the Technical Department of the municipality. This pertained as well to the construction of studios or the alteration of pre-existing structures in view of accommodating a photographic studio. The archival fonds thus generated provide us with a largely untapped primary source for the history of photography in Bucharest. The archival records discussed in this paper concern two of Bucharest’s foremost photographers in the 19th century, Carol Szathmári and Franz Duschek. Corroborated with cartographic material and press sources, the retrieved building permissions bring significant clarification to the chronology and the changing urban contexts of their photographic practice, while the accompanying architectural projects shed new light on the spatial organization of their residences and studios. The arguments advanced in this paper notably lead to the identification of Duschek’s surviving studio house on strada Nouă (today str. Edgar Quinet), and to the localization of several exterior shots in the immediate vicinity of Duschek’s provisional studio in No. 21 Calea Mogoșoaiei.
Keywords: 19th – century photography, urban history, architecture, architectural project, Carol Szathmári, Franz Duschek, Joseph Exner
ADRIANA DUMITRAN
The Photographer Adolf Klingsberg and Julietta, his Workshop in Bucharest, in the First Half of the 20th Century
Abstract
In the first half of the 20th century, the Bucharest photography scene was dominated by the activity of the Julietta photographic workshop and its entrepreneur owner and photographer Adolf Klingsberg. Through his professionalism and personal charm, he became the Royal Court Photographer in 1909. He was a constant presence around the Romanian royal family documenting the events they attended and was one of the creators of the public image of the Monarchy through the many official portraits which he made. Adolf Klingsberg was a respected member of the community of photographers in Romania, president of the Union of Photographers. A discreet presence whose life is still little known decades after his fame faded during the communist regime this paper presents his activity in light of the archive documents and press research.
Keywords: Romanian photography, Julietta, Adolf Klingsberg, Julietta Klingsberg, biography, Royal Court Photographer, photographic workshop, official portraits, royal family
IOANA VLASIU
Un debutant incomod – Ion Grigorescu între opunere și supunere
Résumé
Ion Grigorescu (n. 1945) débute dans le contexte de la libéralisation politique et culturelle de la Roumanie de la fin de la septième décennie du siècle passé. Dans les arts visuels – et non seulement – les rigueurs idéologiques et le réalisme socialiste cèdent la place à un éclectisme moderniste récupérateur. L'abstractionnisme est à l’ordre du jour. Sur ce fond confus, Ion Grigorescu finit par avoir la certitude que tout style corromp et qu'on doit l’éviter. Il devient singulier par son retour programmé à “ce que l’on voit”, à “un réalisme non critique”, qui fait appel à la photographie et au film, en tant que seuls garants d’une approche honnête, pas contre-faite, du réel. Dans ce sens, on pourrait faire une paralèlle avec l’artiste allemand Gerhard Richter, qui, émigré de l’est contraignant de l’Allemagne vers l’ouest libre, voit, également, dans la photographie, la seule manière de reprendre à zéro. J’ai suivi la période de début de Ion Grigorescu jusqu’autour de 1975, aussi bien que les moyens très divers dont la photographie et le film interfèrent avec le dessin et la peinture. J’ai attiré l’attention sur son activité de chercheur de l'histoire de la photographie en Roumanie, en général, ignorée, mais qui ne peut pas être séparée de la réflexion sur la complexité et l’ambiguïté de l’image visuelle qui structure tout son oeuvre.
Keywords: Ion Grigorescu, style, realism, photography
Ediția a XIX-a a Sesiunii anuale de comunicări științifice „Date noi în cercetarea artei medievale și premoderne din România”, București, 20–21 aprilie 2023 (Departamentul de artă medievală), p. 221
Expoziția M.H. Maxy De la avangardă la socialism, curator Călin Stegerean, comisar de expoziție Patricia Bădulescu, documentare Monica Croitoru, design expozițional Skaarchitects, la Muzeul Național de Artă al României, parterul Galeriei Naționale, în perioada 28 decembrie 2022 – 30 aprilie 2023 (Olivia Nițiș), p. 231
Expoziţia Victor Brauner, Invenții și magie la Timișoara, Muzeul de Artă din Timișoara, Palatul Baroc (17 februarie – 28 mai 2023) (Olivia Nițiș), p. 234
Expoziția Silvan - un portretist între literații, muzicienii și actorii secolului XX, Muzeul de Artă Craiova, 11 mai – 15 iulie 2023 (Adrian Ioniță), p. 236
Expoziția Drumul către Încoronarea din anul 1922, Muzeul Militar Național „Regele Ferdinand I”, 25 octombrie 2022 – 31 decembrie 2023 (Ramona Caramelea), p. 241
Conferinţa internaţională Romanian Photography. Local perspective and European trends / Fotografia românească. Perspective locale şi tendinţe europene, Institutul de Istoria Artei „G. Oprescu” și Biblioteca Naţională a României, 8 iunie 2023, Biblioteca Naţională a României, Sala Mircea Eliade (Ramona Caramelea), p. 244
Expoziția Meșgul Șehir. Ișgal Istanbul’unda Siyaset ve Gündelik Hayat 1918–1923/Occupied City. Politics and Daily Life in Istanbul, Istanbul Araștırmaları Enstitüsü (Institutul de Cercetări din Istanbul), 11 ianuarie – 26 decembrie 2023 (Adrian-Silvan Ionescu), p. 248
Expoziția Niki de Saint Phalle. Les années 1980 et 1990: l’art en liberté, Les Abattoirs, Musée Frac Occitanie Toulouse, 7 oct. 2022 – 5 mars 2023 (Adrian-Silvan Ionescu), p. 255
Expoziţia Lumea satului în pictura românească, Muzeul Municipiului Bucureşti, Palatul Suţu, 15 decembrie 2022 – 20 august 2023 (Ioana Apostol), p. 261
Expoziţia Nicolae Grigorescu – Pictor al ethosului românesc, MNAR, 15 mai – 17 septembrie 2023 (Corina Teacă), p. 266
Expoziția retrospectivă Carmen Calvo, 5 mai – 3 septembrie 2023, Muzeul Picasso, Barcelona. Curatori: Emmanuel Guigon, Victòria Combalía (Corina Teacă), p. 267
Expoziția Grupul celor patru, Muzeul Colecțiilor de Artă, București, 9 iulie–24 septembrie 2023 (Virginia Barbu), p. 269
Expoziția Füssli. Entre rêve et fantastique, Musée Jacquemart-André, Paris, 16 septembrie 2022 – 23 ianuarie 2023 (Adrian-Silvan Ionescu), p. 271
MARIAN ȚUȚUI, AURELIAN STROE (coordonatori), In Honorem 70 Adrian-Silvan Ionescu. Colecție de studii și amintiri despre Adrian-Silvan Ionescu, Oscar Print Editură/Tipografie, București, 2022, 567 p. + il. (Cătălin I. Nicolae), p. 277
DOINA LEMNY, Brancusi et ses muses, Éditions Gourcuff Gradenigo, Montreuil, 2022, 175 p., 174 ill. în text (Cristian-Robert Velescu), p. 282
DOINA LEMNY, Constantin Brancusi, la chose vraie, Éditions Gourcuff Gradenigo, Montreuil, 2022, 239 p., 265 il. (Cristian-Robert Velescu), p. 285
OANA-MĂDĂLINA POPESCU, Icoane ale Sfântului Grigore Decapolitul realizate pe manuscrise, tipărituri și hrisoave, București, Dinasty Print Art, 2022, 151 p.+il. (facsimile pp. 101–143, bibliografie și indici), p. 287
MONA MOMESCU şi EDUARD ANDREI, Risipitorul de talent: Ilie Cristoloveanu, pictor și filolog în România și SUA, Editura Paideia, Bucureşti, 2022, 522 p. + il. ISBN: 978-606-748-638-4 (Ramona Caramelea), p. 288
Istoricul de artă Răzvan Theodorescu (22.05.1939 – 6.02.2023) (Constantin Ciobanu), p. 293
Un stâlp al Bibliotecii Academiei (Adrian-Silvan Ionescu), p. 299
DE LIBRIS
Buletin bibliografic (V.B., A.S.I.)
