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Tag: Bucharest Municipality Museum

  • Sculptor Frederic Storck

    Sculptor Frederic Storck

    Bucharest is home to one of the most beautiful museums in Romania: the Frederic Storck and Cecilia Cuțescu-Storck Museum, a memorial house that is part of the Bucharest Municipality Museum (MMB). The museum is also an impressive workshop in terms of its architecture and style, and especially for the art collection it hosts. This museum is devoted to two great interwar artists of Romania, husband and wife, key figures of the cultural and academic world of their time.

     

    Sculptor Frederic Storck (1872-1942) was one of the most prominent figures of Romanian interwar art. He was one of the most representative and versatile sculptors. His artistic activity span a long period of time and his works are, with very few exceptions, executed with great skill, very unified and at the same time, very varied.

     

    More details about Frederic Storck from the deputy director of the Bucharest Municipality Museum, Elena Olariu:

     

    “Frederic Storck was the son of Karl Storck and the brother of Carol Storck, all great sculptors. He had permanent exhibitions in Romania, but also in Germany, because Frederic Storck completed his art studies in Munich, Germany. He also traveled to Paris, He stayed here for a period of time to further his studies, before returning to Romania. In 1901, one of the most important artistic associations in Romania was founded, “Tinerimea artistică” – the Art Youth. Storck was a founding member, along with other great Romanian artists. He was active in this association for a very long time, and his most important role was as an active talent scout. In this search for young talented artists, he discovered and tried to promote Cecilia Cuțescu, who had stayed in Paris after finishing her studies, alongside her first husband. Over the years, they would get to know each other better, fall in love and get married after Cecilia Cuțescu’s divorce. His activity at Tinerimea artistică also linked this association to Princess Maria, who had become an enthusiastic admirer of Romanian art, and Frederic Storck wanted to attract her as much as possible to this area. In fact, she became the patron of Art Youth. The relationship between Princess Maria and Frederic Storck was special. He was extremely hardworking, had an extraordinary energy and was somehow the soul of these great exhibitions. The connection with the royal family, which continued since his father’s time, was, let’s say, crowned with success. Like his father, Frederic Storck created various sculpted portraits of members of the royal family, including one made for King Carol I, but also another splendid one made for Queen Maria. They were recently restored and are exhibited at the Frederic Storck and Cecilia Cuțescu-Storck Museum”.

     

    Frederic Storck’s work is characterized by a harmonious interweaving of elements that are a tribute to classicism with modernist overtones. The artist’s vision was moderate, with slight stylizations, pursuing elegance of composition, the inner expression and the perfection of the form. Elena Olariu tells us about some of the artist’s major works:

     

    “Frederic’s fame also brings him important commissions. For example, he created 8 caryatids for the famous Cantacuzino Palace in Bucharest. In 1907, Frederic Storck executed an important commission, two sculptures representing industry and agriculture for the Administrative Palace in Galați and also for the municipality there he created the monument devoted to Mihai Eminescu. In 1930, he was commissioned to sculpt the portrait of Beethoven. He also created statuary groups for the Credit Bank of Romania. So, somehow Frederic Storck, just like his father, actively contributed to the beautification of modern Romanian cities”.

     

    In 1906, Frederic Storck became a professor at the School of Fine Arts in Bucharest. He was a methodical teacher who enjoyed great artistic prestige. He instilled in his students respect for drawing, the basic prerequisite for the study of any plastic representation. More about his teaching activity from Elena Olariu:

     

    “Perhaps the most important part pf his career was his tenure at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bucharest, where he taught sculpture for decades, being extremely appreciated and loved by his students. He dedicated almost his entire life to this dream of training as many sculptors as possible in Romania. And, indeed, his students loved him greatly for his seriousness, for his extraordinary capacity for work, for his talent and for this willingness to sacrifice himself and give back to the community”. (VP)

  • Victory Road, a journey into the history of a princely street

    Victory Road, a journey into the history of a princely street

    Perhaps the most famous road in Bucharest is Victory Road – an important artery in the center of the capital, which stretches from the United Nations Square to Victory Square (where the Romanian Government building is located) and has a length of 2,700 meters. Victory Road is one of the oldest arteries of Bucharest. Before the reign of ruler Constantin Brâncoveanu (1654-1714, reign between 1688-1714), the artery did not exist, being partly called Brașov Road and another section being known as Big Street. The union of the two roads resulted in today’s street in 1692, opened by Prince Constantin Brâncoveanu under the name of Mogoșoaia Bridge – this was a princely street, ensuring the connection between the prince’s estate in Mogoșoaia and the princely palace near the Old Court, at the end of the street. Thus, the new artery becomes the main road in the capital. It is along this street that boyar houses, churches, inns (which will later become hotels), shops, luxury stores, cafes, restaurants or state institutions would be erected. The street initially had wooden sleepers, and later it was paved with stone. In 1882, the first electric street installations appeared in front of the Royal Palace on Victory Road. The name “Victory Road” was given to this street after the Romanian army made its triumphant entry into the capital on this road on October 8, 1878, after the victory in the War of Independence (1877-1878).

     

    More about the rich history of this old princely street from the coordinator of the Department of Modern and Contemporary History at the Bucharest Municipality Museum, Camelia Ene:

     

    “This name, “Victory Road”, an incursion into the history of a princely street, may seem at first glance, an outdated topic. But it is not, because it is a very important artery of the city, the first south-north axis of this important settlement, loaded with history. Victory Road has a name with a special resonance. It simply refers to the victory that the Romanian armies obtained in 1878, following the War of Independence. But Victory Road is much older. It is the first road traced during the reign of Prince Brâncoveanu, who managed to unite portions of the slums located on winding streets, as foreign travelers said, and go to Mogoșoaia, the place where he built a palace, his personal estate. There had to be a connection between the Royal Court and his house, his residence, but of course it also passed near the houses of his byzades or sons”.

     

    What is the present-day outlook of this road? Camelia Ene compares it to an elegant lady:

     

    “Today, Victory Road is a street that, when we walk on it, burdened with personal problems, we probably forget to see the beauty of the buildings. I consider it an elegant lady because it shows us so many architectural styles that blend together, the taste that the commissioners had for Western architecture. We have eclectic, French, Art Nouveau, baroque, neo, baroque styles. We have so many buildings that simply overwhelm us with their beauty, but also with the fact that they are imposing. Maybe if we stopped in front of one of them and asked ourselves the question – who lived here? When was it built? This curiosity would lead us to search the archives and find out how Victory Road was born. The road was built from south to north. Great families who created this city are people who built the history of this street through the houses that were built, but you should know that some were built on the site of other houses. The street is formed from the front of the Church of Saint Spyridon, from the United Nations Square to Victory Square. It crosses an area with old houses. This is the place where, during the Revolution of 1821, Bimbașa Sava, commander of the Arnauts, mercenaries of Albanian origin, who protected the ruler and the boyars, was killed. Walking along Victory Road we have the CEC Palace on the left, built in 1900 on the site of an old inn, In 1878, after the Romanian army paraded victoriously on Victory Road on October 8, after the War of Independence, its official name was changed to Victory Road”.

     

    Victory Road remains one of the most important landmarks of the capital, from a historical, commercial, architectural and stylistic, political and cultural point of view. On this road we encounter important buildings at local or national level, including the National Museum of History of Romania, the CEC Palace, the Royal Palace (hosting the National Fine Arts Museum), the Romanian Athenaeum, the National Military Circle, the Museum of Collections, the Enescu House and some of the capital’s most luxurious shops or hotels.

  • The George Severeanu Museum and Collection

    The George Severeanu Museum and Collection

    In one of the old, central and chic neighborhoods of Bucharest, near the main boulevard Calea Victoriei — Victory Road, there is the house of the medical doctor George Severeanu, a house that has been transformed into a museum, being one of the branches of the Bucharest Municipality Museum. It is not surprising at all, as the radiologist Severeanu was, actually, the first director of the Bucharest’s Museum and one of the most important collectors of historical artifacts of the epoch. Coming from a family of medical doctors, George Severeanu was born in 1879 and many of his passions — including medicine and travel — were inspired by his father, another famous doctor, the surgeon Constantin Dimitrescu Severeanu, as Dan Pârvulescu, a museographer at the George Severeanu Memorial House told us.



    Dan Pârvulescu: “He managed to travel abroad quite a lot, thus being an inspiration for his child, the future doctor George Severeanu, to travel abroad, to visit museums. It was a fashionable thing at the time. In time, he completed his studies in Berlin and Vienna. He met a lot of people who were passionate about collecting. At that time, collecting was a fashion in Europe and here, in the Romanian space, and, in this way, he began to slowly collect different objects, in parallel with his medical career, which was an exceptional one. He taught at the Faculty of Medicine and was a doctor at Brâncovenesc Hospital. At that time, he published many specialized articles, books, and in parallel, he was passionate about collecting historical artifacts.”



    Many of these artifacts come from the Romanian space, from Dobrogea, and from the Mediterranean basin, being mainly of Greco-Roman origin. Dr. Severeanus collection also includes surprising things for archaeologists, prehistoric objects from the Bucharest area thanks to which the history of the capital could be completed. However, the main passion of radiologist George Severeanu was numismatics.



    Dan Pârvulescu is back at the microphone with more: “George Severeanu’s greatest passion was numismatics and he collected almost 9,000 coins, which he donated to the museum. His entire collection is donated in several stages to the Bucharest Municipality Museum. They are Greek, Roman and medieval coins. Many of them were quite surprising, for instance those from the medieval period. Part of the collection consists of coins from the time of ruler Radu I, a historical figure not very well known in historiography. There are not many things left from his reign, but through the important collection of coins from his period, it was possible to better document some things related to the economy, money circulation and trade in that period.”



    Given the importance of Dr. Severeanu’s collection, it is no wonder that he was appointed to head the History Museum of the Romanian capital city, when it was established in the inter-war period. Dan Pârvulescu explains: “It was the municipality’s idea to set up this museum, but it took more than a decade for the project to be implemented. The decision was made in 1921, but it was only ten years later that works were actually initiated, and the museum collection was built around this core, dr. Severeanu’s collection. On the other hand, archaeological research was being conducted in the Bucharest area, so another important part of the collection came from this archaeological research. Obviously, donations from the population were also important, because when the decision was made to set up a museum of the city of Bucharest, people contributed lots of things.”



    Unfortunately, the physician’s house, which was an item of architectural heritage in itself, had an unfortunate destiny, especially at the beginning of the communist era, when it was nationalised and seized by the members of the communist nomenklatura, as Dan Pârvulescu told us.



    Dan Pârvulescu: “For a while, various people lived there. Dr. George Severeanu died in 1939 and his wife continued to live in the house for another 18 years. But the building was nationalised and the party brought various officials to live there. Meanwhile, the collection was taken abroad. Most of it ended up in Paris, part of it was in Belgium. Documents are still missing, and the house archive or the National Archive have little information about it. We are working on a monograph of this family, because it is well worth it. There’s a blank period, about which we don’t know much. What we do know is that in 1956 the museum was opened in the house, with exhibits mainly consisting of coins from various periods, but in the early 1990s the house was in such a state of disrepair that the authorities were forced to close it.”



    Fortunately, in 2017, after extensive restoration and upgrade works, the George Severeanu Museum was opened in the physician’s home, where his collection is on display in a modern, interactive manner. (LS, AMP)