Zambaccian Museum, Bucharest, Rumania (detail)

The Zambaccian Museum in

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ro, București ) is the capital and largest city of Romania, as well as its cultural, industrial, and financial centre. It is located in the southeast of the country, on the banks of the Dâmbovița River, less than north of ...

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Moldova to the east, and ...

is a museum in the former home of

Krikor Zambaccian Krikor is a Western Armenian given name, equivalent to Eastern Armenian given name Grigor and the English equivalent Gregory and its variants in different languages. A diminutive of the name is Koko. Notable people with the name include: Religi ...

(1889 –1962), a businessman and art collector. The museum was founded in the Dorobanți neighbourhood in 1947, closed by the Ceauşescu regime in 1977, and re-opened in 1992. It is now a branch of The

National Museum of Art of Romania The National Museum of Art of Romania ( ro, Muzeul Național de Artă al României) is located in the Royal Palace in Revolution Square, central Bucharest. It features collections of medieval and modern Romanian art, as well as the international ...

. Its collection includes works by Romanian artists—including a masterful portrait of Zambaccian himself by

Corneliu Baba Corneliu Baba (; 18 November 1906, Craiova – 28 December 1997) was a Romanian painter, primarily a portraitist, but also known as a genre painter and an illustrator of books. Early life Having first studied under his father, the academic pain ...

—and works by several French

impressionists Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open Composition (visual arts), composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating ...

. It is located not far from Piaţa Dorobanţilor on a street now renamed after Zambaccian. At the time the museum was founded, the act of donation stated that it must be housed in Zambaccian's former home. However, after the 1977 Bucharest earthquake (which did no detectable damage to the museum building), the Romanian government created the

Museum of Art Collections The Museum of Art Collections (Romanian: ''Muzeului Colecțiilor de Artă'') is a branch of the National Museum of Art of Romania and is situated in Bucharest. It is located on Calea Victoriei no.111 at the corner of Calea Griviței, in Romanit Pa ...

, consolidating many of the city's smaller museums (and a good number of expropriated private collections). The Zambaccian collection still resided at the Museum of Art Collections at the time of the

Romanian Revolution of 1989 The Romanian Revolution ( ro, Revoluția Română), also known as the Christmas Revolution ( ro, Revoluția de Crăciun), was a period of violent civil unrest in Romania during December 1989 as a part of the Revolutions of 1989 that occurred i ...

; it was returned to its historic location in 1992. Artists in the collection include Romanians

Ion Andreescu Ion Andreescu (; 15 February 1850 – 22 October 1882) was a Romanian painter. Biography He was the son of Andrei Dobrescu and Anastasia Pencovico. It is unknown if he was born in Bucharest or in another one of his parents' residences in the vic ...

, Apcar Baltazar, Henri Catargi,

Alexandru Ciucurencu Alexandru Ciucurencu (; 27 September 1903 – 27 December 1977) was a Romanian Post-Impressionist painter, and a corresponding member of the Romanian Academy. Born in Tulcea, he studied from 1921 to 1926 at the National School of Fine Arts in Bu ...

, Horia Damian, Nicolae Dărăscu, Lucian Grigorescu,

Nicolae Grigorescu Nicolae Grigorescu (; 15 May 1838 – 21 July 1907) was one of the founders of modern Romanian painting. There is a metro station named after Grigorescu in Bucharest. It was given his name in 1990, before which it was named after Communist army ...

Iosif Iser Iosif Iser (21 May 1881 – 25 April 1958; born and died in Bucharest) was a Romanian painter and graphic artist. Born to a Jewish family, he was initially inspired by Expressionism, creating drawings with thick, unmodulated, lines and steep ang ...

, Ştefan Luchian, Samuel Mutzner, Alexandru Padina,

Theodor Pallady Theodor Pallady (; 11 April 1871 – 16 August 1956) was a Romanian painter. Biography Theodor Pallady was the son of Ioan Pallady and Maria Cantacuzino, the older sister of Romanian diplomat Neculai B. Cantacuzino. He was born in Iași, Romani ...

Gheorghe Petrașcu Gheorghe Petrașcu (; 20 November 1872, Tecuci – 1 May 1949, Bucharest) was a Romanian painter. He won numerous prizes throughout his lifetime and had his paintings exhibited posthumously at the Paris International Exhibition and the Venice Bi ...

Vasile Popescu Vasile Popescu (May 1, 1925 in Bucharest – 2003) was a Romanian basketball player who competed in the 1952 Summer Olympics The 1952 Summer Olympics ( fi, Kesäolympialaiset 1952; sv, Olympiska sommarspelen 1952), officially known as the ...

Camil Ressu Camil Ressu (; 28 January 1880 – 1 April 1962) was a Romanian painter and academic, one of the most significant art figures of Romania. Biography Early life and career Born in Galați, Ressu originated from an Aromanian family that migrated ...

, and

Nicolae Tonitza Nicolae Tonitza (; April 13, 1886 – February 27, 1940) was a Romanian painter, engraver, lithographer, journalist and art critic. Drawing inspiration from Post-impressionism and Expressionism, he had a major role in introducing modernist g ...

, and French artists Pierre Bonnard,

Paul Cézanne Paul Cézanne ( , , ; ; 19 January 1839 – 22 October 1906) was a French artist and Post-Impressionist painter whose work laid the foundations of the transition from the 19th-century conception of artistic endeavour to a new and radically d ...

—the museum has the only Cézanne in Romania—, Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot,

Eugène Delacroix Ferdinand Victor Eugène Delacroix ( , ; 26 April 1798 – 13 August 1863) was a French Romantic artist regarded from the outset of his career as the leader of the French Romantic school.Noon, Patrick, et al., ''Crossing the Channel: Britis ...

André Derain André Derain (, ; 10 June 1880 – 8 September 1954) was a French artist, painter, sculptor and co-founder of Fauvism with Henri Matisse. Biography Early years Derain was born in 1880 in Chatou, Yvelines, Île-de-France (region), Île-de-Franc ...

Raoul Dufy Raoul Dufy (; 3 June 1877 – 23 March 1953) was a French Fauvist painter. He developed a colorful, decorative style that became fashionable for designs of ceramics and textile as well as decorative schemes for public buildings. He is noted ...

, Albert Marquet,

Henri Matisse Henri Émile Benoît Matisse (; 31 December 1869 – 3 November 1954) was a French visual artist, known for both his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a drawing, draughtsman, printmaking, printmaker, and sculptur ...

, Camille Pissarro, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and

Maurice Utrillo Maurice Utrillo (), born Maurice Valadon; 26 December 1883 – 5 November 1955), was a French painter of the School of Paris who specialized in cityscapes. Born in the Montmartre quarter of Paris, France, Utrillo is one of the few famous pain ...

, as well as pieces by two other artists who worked in France, the Spaniard

Pablo Picasso Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and Scenic design, theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th ce ...

and the Englishman

Alfred Sisley Alfred Sisley (; ; 30 October 1839 – 29 January 1899) was an Impressionist landscape painter who was born and spent most of his life in France, but retained British citizenship. He was the most consistent of the Impressionists in his dedicatio ...

. The courtyard features a large sculpture by Romanian sculptor

Oscar Han Oscar Han (December 3, 1891 in Bucharest – February 14, 1976 in Bucharest) was a Romanian sculptor and writer. A student of Dimitrie Paciurea at the Academy of Arts in Bucharest, he was a member of ''the Group of Four'' together with painters ...

; other sculptors with works in the collection are Constantin Brâncuși,

Cornel Medrea Cornel Medrea (; March 8, 1888–July 25, 1964) was a Romanian sculptor. Biography Artistic studies He was born on March 8, 1888, in Miercurea Sibiului, then in Szeben County, Kingdom of Hungary, now Sibiu County, Romania. After moving with hi ...

, Miliţa Pătraşcu,

Dimitrie Paciurea Dimitrie Paciurea (; 2 November (1873 or 1875) – 14 July 1932) was a Romanian sculptor. His representational and symbolic style contrasts strongly to the more abstract style of his contemporary and co-national Constantin Brâncuși. Born i ...

, and

Frederic Storck Frederic Storck (19 January 1872, Bucharest – 26 December 1942, Bucharest) was a Romanian sculptor. His father was the sculptor Karl Storck. His brother, Carol Storck, was also a sculptor and his wife, Cecilia Cuțescu-Storck was a painter. ...

; Storck's own former home, also in the north end of Bucharest, is also now a museum.

External links

Official site
(branches of the National Museum of Art of Romania)
An online gallery of works from the Zambaccian Museum

(in French) {{authority control Art museums and galleries in Bucharest National museums of Romania Art museums established in 1947 1947 establishments in Romania