Andreescu [antikvár]

his book, the first of a trilogy on which the author worked for twenty years, seeks to capture the interest of the generál public, while at the same time to serve as an authoritative reference book for the researcher, critic and art histórián. Andreescu was one of the leading Románián painters of the 19th century, and certainly the greatest and most profound Románián landscape-painter. Details of the artist's life and activity are still almost entirely unknown, despite the fact that two small monographs were written about him between the two World Wars and a large-scale exhibition made his works more widely known. At that time the story of his life could have been summed up in twenty lines and State collections did not possess more than 40 of his works. Today there are over 130, 50 of which were discovered as a result of our researches. We believe that we have alsó reconstituted all that could still be reconstituted of the artist's biography and the circumstances of his creative evolution. Archives have disappeared and with them countless documents. With great pains we have discovered about fifteen letters, a number of school certificates and personal documents, photographs and press articles, all hitherto unknown and absolutely necessary if we are to draw certain conclusions. We have traced the artist's footsteps with scrupulous care, visiting all the places where he lived, worked and travelled, both in Romania and Francé, and especially Buzáu, Paris and Barbizon. In the Preface of our book we have set forth all the difficulties that we encountered and our efforts to overcome them, giving details of the manner in which we have proceeded and the present stage of our endeavours to solve each problem. The first volume deals with the painter's life and activity, from his birth to the time of his death, with chapters on his schooldays, début, formative years, maturity and end, the last of which determines the place he occupies in the history of Románián and European art. This volume alsó contains a "Chronology and Concordance" brought up to date, all the correspondence that has come to light, an exhaustive anthology of everything written on the artist by the press of his day, around 300 notes, documents and references, an annotated bibliography, indexes and tables. One of the most delicate problems with which we had to deal was the existence of over 700 spurious and wrongly-attributed works, which it was imperative to distinguish from the about 250 authentic paintings, in order to avoid distortion of the real content of his work and its qualities. As regards the method used, no efforts were spared within the limits of our possibilities: historical and philological researches, comparative studies of treatment, X-rays, infrared und ultraviolet rays, skimming light and quartz lamp, stereo-microscope etc. The second volume is devoted to the evolution of critical opinion on Andreescu from 1882 up to the present day, verification of the methods and results involved in the problem of spurious works, with reproductions, inter alia, of numerous macro-photographic details. Finally, the third volume contains a descriptive catalogue of the artist's work, comprising around 300 items, somé 50 of which are drawings and water colours. When we began our work only about 100 canvases and a few drawings were known to exist. The subject-matter and conclusions of the volume under review do not lose sight of the comprehensive perspective of all three volumes. The chapter on Andreescu's schooldays conjures up the image of his parents and their social circumstances, revealing for the first time that theirs was a family of seven children. His father owned a highly-profitable wine and spirits business, until the day when he lost everything and the future painter was obliged to leave high school. After studying at the Fine Arts Academy in Bucharest, he succeeded in being appointed to teach drawing and calligraphy at the Episcopal Seminary at Buzau.