Art catalogs

Among the diverse and extremely valuable collections of the Peleș National Museum, the glass collection stands out for its beauty and refinement, which we present in this second catalog dedicated to the editorial valorization of the movable national cultural heritage that decorates the interiors of the Peleș Castle in Sinaia, an emblematic monument of the European historical phenomenon, created from the unparalleled initiative and passion of our first king.

Published: 2019, Sinaia
texts: Cornelia Dumitrescu

To this talented and hardworking Czech architect we dedicate the exhibition and catalogue entitled Karel Liman. Architect of the Royal House of Romania, in which we try to present the remarkable architectural monuments that he designed and built in Romania. Sinaia, Bran, Cotroceni, Lăpușna or Copăceni are some of the royal residences to which the architect Liman definitively linked his name, collaborating admirably with King Carol I and Queen Maria of Romania.

Published: 2019, Sinaia
texts: Dr. Narcis Dorin Ion, Ruxanda Beldiman, Dr. Mircea Hortopan

On February 18/March 5, 2016, it was one hundred years since the passing of Queen Elisabeth of Romania. A fascinating personality of our modern history, a very special figure of the Romanian royal family, whom the Peleș National Museum is now paying tribute to by organizing a special exhibition. An exhibition that aims to present to lovers of beauty a special portrait of the sovereign-poet Carmen Sylva by displaying valuable heritage pieces from the collections of the Peleș National Museum.

Published: 2019, Sinaia
texts: academician Dan Berindei, university professor Dr. Ion Bulei, Dr. Narcis Dorin Ion

Published: 2019, Sinaia
texts: Narcis Dorin Ion, Doina Pauleanu

April 20, 2019 marked the 180th anniversary of the birth of Prince Karl Eitel Friedrich Zephyrinus Ludwig von Hohenzollern Sigmaringen in Sigmaringen Castle (Germany) in 1839. He was the first king of modern Romania, to whose development he made an essential contribution. He was very proud of his ancestors, whom he portrayed in the Hall of Honor of Peleș Castle, trying to create a gallery of ancestors in his residence, as he had seen in his childhood and youth spent at his family's castle in Sigmaringen. "The fact that he was among the Hohenzollerns - wrote his first biographer, Paul Lindenberg - always filled him with fully justified pride, but precisely for this reason he wanted to conquer by his own strength and as a result of his baggage of knowledge and skills the place that other princes consider as something that is simply theirs. This explains much of the mentality of the young prince, as well as the later development of the prince and king, who constantly imposed the highest demands on himself and who, in his soldierly simplicity, repeatedly explained: 'What a man can do himself, he should not let be done by another'".

Published: 2019, Sinaia
texts: Dan Berindei, Ion Bulei, Narcis Dorin Ion, Nicolae St. Noica

"By publishing this selective catalogue of the Furniture Collection of the Peleș National Museum, we are initiating a series of publications dedicated to the valorisation of the decorative art collections that enrich the heritage of the most important architectural ensemble of the historical phenomenon in Romania. Intrinsically linked to Peleș Castle and its creator, King Carol I, all these collections of paintings, weapons, furniture, ceramics, glass, goldsmithing - still constitute today the supreme testimony to the refined collecting taste of the king with the longest reign in the history of the country. From this point of view, King Carol I remains not only the most important collector of modern Romania, but also one of the most knowledgeable among the European monarchs of his time."

Published: 2018, Sinaia
texts: Liliana Manoliu

The study offers a series of considerations regarding the history of Peleș Castle. The author focuses on the collection of heritage objects within the museum. Following the inventory in 1948, the Peleș Castle collection included the following art objects: 298 main paintings, 487 secondary paintings and engravings, 1,062 "valueless" paintings, 150 icons, 1,988 display items, 4,879 weapons and medals, 343 carpets, 429 furniture, 210 stained glass windows, 331 sculptures, 9,370 books.

Published: 2018, Sinaia
texts: Narcis Dorin Ion, Mircea Alexandru Hortopan, Corina Dumitrache, Alexandra Ghioarca, Raluca Romok, Macrina Oproiu

On December 1, 2018, we celebrate a century since the realization of the Great Union, a dream in the realization of which King Ferdinand I, nicknamed "The Unifier", and his august wife, Queen Maria, played a decisive role - along with the Romanian people and the political class of those times. As was natural, in the Year of the Centennial of the Great Union, the Peleș National Museum celebrates this crucial event in Romanian history by organizing the temporary exhibition The Royal Family and the Great Union, which will present to the visiting public and history lovers heritage objects, documents and period photographs relevant to the shaping of the events of a century ago in which members of the Romanian Royal Family played an overwhelming role.

Published: 2018, Sinaia
Coordinator and co-author: Dr. Narcis Dorin Ion

Published: 2018, Sinaia
texts: academician Răzvan Theodorescu, university professor Dr. Ion Bulei, Dr. Ioan Drăgan, Dr. Narcis Dorin Ion

On July 18, 2018, in the Year of the Centennial of the Great Union, we commemorate eight decades since the passing into eternity of Queen Maria, the only queen of Greater Romania, a dream in the realization of which she played a decisive role alongside her august husband, King Ferdinand I, the one who became "The Unifier". As the title of this work suggests - which happily completes the exhibition that the Peleș National Museum is organizing in memory of the great queen who was Maria of Romania - we propose to history and art lovers a special portrait of the one nicknamed "the soldier queen" or "the mother of the wounded", for the devotion with which she was involved in the Great War a century ago.

Published: 2018, Sinaia
texts: academician Răzvan Theodorescu, university professor Dr. Ion Bulei, Dr. Ioan Drăgan, Dr. Narcis Dorin Ion

This study represents an exhibition catalogue dedicated to the ceramics and glass collection of the Peleș National Museum. The ceramics collection includes over 5,000 pieces.

Published: 2017, Sinaia
texts: Dr. Narcis Dorin Ion, Dr. Macrina Oproiu, Cornelia Dumitrescu, Rodica Rotărescu, Liliana Manoliu

The study provides a series of specialized information on the Flemish and Dutch art collection of King Charles I. The collection includes paintings, goldsmith's goods, a harpsichord, furniture, and ceramics.

Published: 2016, Sinaia
texts: Dr. Narcis Dorin Ion, Dr. Mircea Hortopan, Drd. Macrina Oproiu, Liliana Manoliu, Daniela Voitescu, Corina Dumitrache, Alexandra Ghioarcă, Nihaela Negutescu

The Art Nouveau style defined both the end and the beginning of a century, giving personality to an era and encompassing all artistic genres related to the external or internal environment. Queen Elisabeth and especially Queen Maria of Romania completed the collection of the Royal House, initially established by King Carol I, with important acquisitions of Art Nouveau pieces, happily reunited at Pelişor Castle in Sinaia.

Published: September 2013, Sinaia
Details: 276 pages, A4
DTP, photos: Alexander Duta
texts: Macrina Oproiu, Rodica Rotarescu, Mircea Hortopan, Liliana Manoliu, Cornelia Dumitrescu, Izabela Torok, Corina Dumitrache
Translation: Irina Voicu

Art and Ceremoniality at Royal Tables introduces us to the daily life of the royal families of Romania from 1866 to 1930, Carol I and Elisabeta, Ferdinand and Maria, from Peleş Castle, Pelişor Castle and the Royal Palaces of Bucharest. Exemplary in his honesty and very demanding of himself, King Carol I of Romania led an almost austere life. Interestingly, in his personal life, the king behaved naturally, as a man with a passion for collecting, sensitive to art and the beauties of nature, with unsophisticated culinary preferences and offering hospitality to the personalities invited to Peleş Castle.

Published: December 2014, Sinaia
Details: 92 pages, A4
DTP, photos: Alexander Duta
texts: Liliana Manoliu, Corina Dumitrache, Macrina Oproiu, Izabela Torok, Laura Avram, Cornelia Dumitrescu

This year marks a century since the historical moment when Romania decided its pre-war orientation, through the voice of its politicians. Freed from the barriers imposed by the old regime, eternally sensitive to Moscow's sensitivities, an important part of the historiography of the last decades frames the Crown Council of August 3, 1914, in a broader context, which does not avoid the counterfactual approach and which is based on extensive archival documentation.

Published: August 2014, Sinaia
Details: 54 pages, A4
DTP, photos: Alexander Duta
texts: Macrina Oproiu, Corina Dumitrache, Izabela Torok, Ionut Banu, Laura Avram

The phenomenon of copying can be understood from a contemporary perspective as a historicist approach, in which the fascination of the past speaks for itself. In the absence of famous originals, copies after great masters were intended to give the royal residence a sumptuous character and to contribute to aesthetic education in an era when color reproduction did not yet exist. Operated by Carol I, the selection of works to be copied reflected the King's preferences for religious subjects. An educational tool, with valences for decorating the castle interiors, the copy acquires a documentary value, attesting to a very good knowledge on the part of the commissioner of the history of European painting present in the great museums.

Published: June 2014, Sinaia
Details: 140 pages, A4
DTP, photos: Alexander Duta
texts: Ruxanda Beldiman
Translation Cristina Hagau

Sinaia Castles thus become a place of interference of the arts where, alongside young classical music performers, the young winners of this competition have the opportunity to exhibit. Now in its third edition, the event was received with great seriousness by young people aged between 7 and 29, with 152 entries with 760 works. The jury was faced with a real challenge, evaluating the works submitted online for the four disciplines.

Published: June 2014, Sinaia
Details: 40 pages, A4
DTP, photos: Alexander Duta
texts: Daniela Voitescu

The works at Balchik were carried out by the Italian firms Fabro Agostino (public works contractor) and Giovanni Tomasini (mosaic, cement and asphalt works), under the direct supervision of the Queen's private secretary, Gaetan Denize. After his sudden death in 1928, the duties fell to Eugen Zwiedineck, Queen Maria's aide and private secretary.

Published: May 2013, Sinaia
Details: 132 pages, A4
DTP, photos: Alexander Duta
texts: Rodica Rotarescu, Mircea Hortopan, Izabela Torok, Cornelia Dumitrescu
Translation: Cristina Hagau

The year 2013 is dedicated to the affirmation of students in grades V-XII from national schools with an art profile, passionate about drawing, painting, engraving, sculpture and photography, with 100 participants registering, with 500 works. The competition was received with great seriousness by the students, and the jury evaluated the works sent online and particularly appreciated the technique, chromatics and thematics of this year's works, even awarding the Grand Prize for engraving.

Published: April 2013, Sinaia
Details: 68 pages, A4
DTP, photos: Alexander Duta
texts: Daniela Voitescu

Italian furniture will be present through Florentine cassone, cabinets, Lombard and Savonarolla chairs, wardrobes, Venetian and Tuscan armchairs, ranging from the 16th century to the end of the 19th century, with an important role in the arrangement of the neo-Renaissance environment of the royal residence in Sinaia. But above all, the color, richness and interior atmosphere of the salons of yesteryear will define the harmony and grandeur of Italian art.

Published: December 2012, Sinaia
Details: 140 pages, A4
DTaP: Alexander Duta
Photos: Constantin Dina
texts: Macrina Oproiu, Liliana Manoliu, Cornelia Dumitrescu, Corina Dumitrache
Translation: Ioana Ursulescu, Camelia Mehedinti

A receipt signed by Joseph Kott, regarding the decoration of the small theatre: the frieze and ceiling painting and a series of copies for the Great Hall, paintings for which he received the sum of 1,886 florins. Considering that the decoration of the Theatre Hall was made, according to the signatures on the works, by Gustav Klimt and Franz Matsch, it is plausible that Künstler-Compagnie worked with Joseph Kott's firm. Two other customs receipts are added, proving that Gustav Klimt and Franz Matsch, in 1885 and Ernst Klimt, in 1886, deposited crates of paintings at the customs point of a Vienna train station to be shipped to Peleş Castle.

Published: September 2012, Sinaia
Details: 64 pages, A4
DTP, photos: Luciano Romano, Alexandru Duta
texts: Ruxanda Beldiman, Liliana Manoliu
Translation: Alistair Ian Blyth

Founded on December 3, 1901, by a group of artists, "Tinerimea" was the longest-lived and most coherent artistic construction in Romania in the first half of the 20th century. Influenced by Western artistic models, Kimon Loghi, Ipolit Strâmbu, Gheorghe Petraşcu, Ştefan Popescu and Frederic Storck formed an artistic nucleus, around which all the artistic personalities of the era gravitated: Constantin Artachino, Arthur Verona, Nicolae Vermont, Ştefan Luchian, Nicolae Grant, Micaela Eleutheriade, Marius Bunescu, etc.

Published: May 2012, Sinaia
Details: 80 pages, A4
DTP, photos: Alexander Duta
texts: Macrina Oproiu

The project thus aims to continue the tradition of promoting young artistic talents, started 100 years ago by Queen Elisabeth, known under the literary pseudonym “Carmen Sylva”. The Queen organized musical evenings at Peles Castle, to which great masters as well as artists at the beginning of their careers were invited. She also admired and encouraged painting and sculpture, supporting scholarship holders of higher art courses.

Published: April 2012, Sinaia
Details: 40 pages, A4
DTP, photos: Alexander Duta
texts: Daniela Voitescu

The castles dear to her soul, Pelişor, Bran, the wonderful summer residences in Balchik, Copăceni and Mamaia, the little house among the fir trees in Sinaia, (Juniperus), or the Maori huts in Cotroceni and in the Pelişor garden were also places of refuge, of romantic dreams, with a fragrance of the era, but also precious evidence of the interior design style from the beginning of the 20th century.

Published: April 2012, Sinaia
Details: 94 pages, A4
DTP, photos: Alexander Duta
texts: Narcis Dorin Ion, Liliana Manoliu, Nicoleta Petcu

Dethroned after the return from exile of King Carol II, on June 8, 1930, he received the symbolic title of Grand Voivode of Alba-Iulia, attended a strict private school based at the Royal Palace and began military training. At only sixteen years old, he was promoted to the rank of second lieutenant of the 1st Mountain Hunters Battalion and took the oath of allegiance to the King. At the same time, Mihai I was the youngest marshal of the Romanian Army.

Published: October 2011, Sinaia
Details: 44 pages, A4
DTP, photos: Alexander Duta
texts: Macrina Oproiu

The catalogue highlights the importance of this artistic phenomenon for the development of Peleş Castle as the cradle of the Hohenzollern dynasty in Romania. Through the pieces of decorative and plastic art from the museum's heritage, an atmosphere specific to the first phase of the completion of the construction works, 1882-1883, is created. The importance of German artistic creations that enrich the art collection of King Carol I, of furniture manufacturers, of suppliers of silver pieces and of painted glass objects is highlighted.

Published: September 2011, Sinaia
Details: 80 pages, A4
DTP, photos: Alexander Duta
texts: Macrina Oproiu, Liliana Manoliu, Ruxanda Beldiman, Marian Constantin, Corina Dumitrache, Daniela Voitescu

Destined to be king, Ferdinand shrouds his person and actions in almost total mystery. “His life,” says one of his posthumous biographers, Eugen Wolbe, “shaded by a certain tragedy, was in accordance with the rigor of duty.” Like the man Carol I, whom those interested only came to truly know after the publication of the Private Correspondence, Ferdinand reveals himself to us only from the fragments of memory of others or from the few biographies, more or less inspired.

Published: June 2011, Sinaia
Details: 44 pages, A5
DTP, photos: Alexander Duta
texts: Corina Dumitrache