The Pele\u0219 National Museum will open the temporary exhibition on Tuesday, September 3, 2024
\nwith the title, "Carmen Sylva-Dora Hitz, word and image \/ Carmen Sylva \u2013 Dora Hitz,
\nword and image\u201d, which explores the remarkable artistic collaboration between the writer and
\nartist Carmen Sylva (1843-1916) and German painter Dora Hitz (1853-1924).
\nThe exhibition commemorates 100 years since the death of Dora Hitz, whose artistic success was
\nfacilitated by the first years spent as a painter of the Royal Court of Romania, under the patronage of
\nQueen Elizabeth, known under the pseudonym Carmen Sylva.
\nPainter Dora Hitz enjoyed considerable professional success as an artist
\nindependent. He participated in the activity of avant-garde circles in Paris, Dresden and
\nBerlin and was appreciated at the time for her exploration of impressionist visual languages,
\nsymbolist and expressionist. Her work was favorably reviewed in European periodicals
\ninfluential, sold by art dealers such as Paul Cassirer and Fritz Gurlitt, and presented in
\nexhibitions in Germany, Italy, France, Great Britain, Romania and the United States. Dora
\nHitz also played an important role in the campaign for women's rights.
\nartistic education: she founded her own art school for women in Berlin in 1893, was
\nfirst president of the Frauenkunstverband in 1913 and managed to convince the Academy of Arts
\nBerlin beauties allowed women to register starting in 1919.
\nIt seems that Dora Hitz's first meeting with Carmen Sylva took place in 1876, at
\nexhibition Allgemeine Kunst-und Kunstindustrie Ausstellung in Munich, when the queen,
\ncaptivated by one of the young artist's works, he invited her to the Royal Court of Romania.
\nThe impetuosity of this proposal to a still unknown painter proves
\nthe queen's personality and also demonstrates her deep confidence in the artistic abilities of
\nwomen in an era when female talent was often downplayed. Dora Hitz seems to have
\ncame to Bucharest in 1878, after the War of Independence, and stayed until 1882,
\nthen returning in 1886\u20131887. He continued to work with Carmen Sylva at least
\nuntil 1890. In 1913, the artist wrote: "I consider the great chance of my life to have been the fact
\nthat I was able to live as a young woman in the land of Queen Carmen Sylva, enjoying
\nher special protection.",<\/p>\n
Her paintings gave visual form to the queen's literary creations, most impressively
\ncrystallization being the series of thirteen paintings for Pele\u0219 Castle, most of which are part of
\ninterior decoration of the old Music Hall. Four other valuable works, originally located at
\nSinaia, were restored and loaned to the Pele\u0219 National Museum by the Museum
\nNational Museum of Art of Romania, of whose heritage they are part.
\nThe event, placed under the auspices of the Royal Family of Romania, is initiated by:
\nDr, Shona Kallestrup, University of St Andrews, and Dr Natalie Gutgesell, Association of
\nart Kunstverein Coburg, and will be continued with an international colloquium entitled Carmen
\nSylva, Dora Hitz and the female artistic networks in Romania and Germany.<\/p>\n
Institutional partners of the Pele\u0219 National Museum in organizing
\nthis approach are: the National Museum of Art of Romania, the Goethe Institute,
\nEmbassy of the Federal Republic of Germany in Bucharest, Embassy of Romania in
\nBerlin and the Consulate General of Romania in Munich.<\/p>\n