While studying in Paris around 1900, microbiologist Alexandru Slătineanu (1873-1939) began building an art collection, frequenting antique and art shops, alongside Dr. Ion Cantacuzino. During this period, when he was obtaining his doctorate in medicine, he purchased, from the famous merchant Ambroise Vollard, Vincent van Gogh’s “The Carrot Picker.” The work is part of a series that captures, in a very realistic spirit, Dutch peasants at their daily work, a subject that intensely preoccupied Van Gogh during the period 1883-1885, when he lived in Nuenen. The work remains, after more than a century, the only Van Gogh found on Romanian territory.

Barbu Slătineanu (1892-1959), son of Alexandru Slătineanu, together with his wife, Alexandra, née Lahovary (1895-1979), expanded the collection through comparative studies on ceramics and traditional art. They added pieces of Romanian, Hungarian and Saxon craftsmanship, from folk costumes and icons to furniture and old weapons. The ensemble thus formed reflects the vision of two generations of Romanian collectors. Although the collection was taken over by the state, piece by piece, during the communist regime, in 2026 it was returned to the heirs, following a redress process that stretched over several years.

The Vermont and the Charm of the Belle Époque exhibition follows the artistic journey of Nicolae Vermont, overlapping with the famous Belle Époque period, which still has the power to arouse fascination today. Following the thread of the artist’s life and creation, the Belle Époque is revealed to us in all its complexity – artistic and social –, from the concerns for progress and monumental, academic art, to the desire to break with tradition through the renewing currents of art.

Curator Maria Munteanu
Scenography Cosmin Florea

The exhibition is a systematic visual analysis undertaken on the enormous corpus of artistic representations of the figure of the national poet, Mihai Eminescu, and on the numerous illustrations (in painting, graphics) of the themes derived from Eminescu’s poems, which have proliferated in Romanian art since the end of the 19th century until the present day, from Constantin Lecca to Gheorghe Anghel and from Corneliu Brudașcu to Mircea Cantor.

Exhibition orchestrated by Monica Dumitru, with accompaniment by Erwin Kessler
Consultant Valentin Coșereanu, “George Călinescu” Institute of the Romanian Academy
Scenography Diana Nicolaie
Exhibition realized in partnership with National Museum of Romanian Literature; National Museum of Romanian Literature Iași; Ipotești Memorial – “Mihai Eminescu” National Studies Center, Romanian Academy Library, Cluj-Napoca Art Museum, Arad Art Museum

A personal and captivating foray into the universe of one of the most appreciated contemporary Romanian artists.

Curator Maria Bilașevschi
Scenography Diana Nicolaie
Coordinator Maria Ionescu

Exhibition presented by LIDL, with the support of Sineva