Treasure paintings are back at the National Museum of Romanian Art following generous private donation

The works were part of the Manu Collection and were included in the MNAR heritage up to their return to the previous owners in 2015. This initiative finalizes a first public-private initiative that stands for the reclaim of an important Romanian art heritage. This initiative materializes for the first time a public-private approach to recover an important heritage of Romanian art. Starting Sunday, January 15, 2017, the National Culture Day, the paintings that illustrate Alexandrina G. Manu and Anica Manu in a Polish costume are exhibited in the Romanian Modern Art Gallery.  

The portraits of Alexandrinei G. Manu and Anica Manu, commissioned by the Manu family in order to consolidate their social status, entwine the custom of votive portraits (Chladek had painted for the Manu Family their portraits in the Budești-Ilfov Church) with the new neoclassic and even Biedermeier, that enter the Romanian painting. The openness towards novelty, evidently portrayed in the ladies’ costumes, in their less rigid stances, and particularly, in their elegance, cohabits alongside the conformity of the mural representations. These two portraits realized by Chladek are distinguishable not only through the artist’s manner to assimilate and transpose the new epoch taste, but also through his virtue in redeeming the materiality of the objects.

The donation was possible through the visionary engagement of Mr. Alain Bonte, businessman and president of the Bonte Foundation; headquartered in Romania, the foundation has objectives that include promoting Romanian art at the national and international level. In this context, MNAR relies on the exemplary character of this approach, to be repeated with other partners and patrons.