| Excerpt |
Barbu Iscovescu was one of the three Romanian painters, along with Ion Negulici and Constantin Daniel Rosenthal, who put his brush on the service of the 1848 Wallachian Revolution. After the conclusion of the revolution, Iscovescu left Bucharest and went to Transylvania where he painted the portraits of Avram Iancu, the head of the Romanian revolution in the Apuseni Mountains and to some of his followers. Afterwards he wandered through Europe and finally settled in Constantinople. There he made a brilliant career for himself as an outstanding portrait-maker. He earned good money and lived in luxury, as a real dandy. But being ill and feeling that he will die soon he dictated his last will to a few friends gathered beside his bed. He bequeathed all his original works and those he collected along with his library to the National Museum in Bucharest. But three years passed till the trunks containing Iscovescu's works of art would reach Bucharest and another six years till a commission made the inventory and took a decision concerning how to use that collection. A few paintings were framed and exhibited in the Museum. Some lithographs and art albums were sent to the newly- founded School of Fine Arts as documentary material for students. It was strange enough that the most important part of his collection, that one containing the portraits of the Transylvanian revolutionists was considered of less importance and the works were gathered and sealed in a special portfolio never to be exhibited or shown to students. Labeled as „useless works„ these masterly portraits were discovered forty-five years later and finally found the place they deserved at the National Museum of Art. |
