RSS
Paintings by Grigorescu, Manet, Renoir displayed at Romanian Academy Library, as part of the Romania-France Cultural Season
An exhibition called "Romania / France - Cultural Itineraries" comprising of a series of manuscripts, archival documents, correspondence, rare books, drawings and engravings that attest to the dynamics and developments in the historical ties between Romania and France opened on Friday at the Library of the Romanian Academy.
The exhibition, part of the Romania-France Cultural Season events, brings together, among others, works by French and Romanian painters - Edouard Manet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Paul Cezanne, Lucian Grigorescu, Nicolae Darascu, Theodor Pallady, along with lithographs, Queen Elisabeta's handwritings, letters by Napoleon III to Count Walewski, and by Romanian ruler Alexandru Ioan Cuza to Napoleon III.
The event was also attended by French ambassador to Romania, Michele Ramis.
Chair of the Romanian Cultural Institute Liliana Turoiu pointed out that the exhibition talks about history and culture.
"We and the entire world are passing through a time when things that seemed to be built to last long prove to be more fragile than ever. I mean here the tragedy that happened a few days ago to one of the symbols of France and the world, the Notre-Dame Cathedral. In such moments, I think it is all the more necessary for us to express these values loud and clear," Turoiu said.
In his turn, Director of the Museum of Romanian Literature Ioan Cristescu said that by honouring the French culture, the Romanian culture is also "honoured in a natural relationship of complementarity of an energy of all Latinity."
"We are discovering, some of us for the first time, a library of works of art, manuscripts, correspondence, rare books, whose personal history oscillates between the areas of personal biography and institutional biography, becoming a common body of the history of the two nations. The rapprochement between Romanian and French historical and cultural figures have objective and subjective connotations according to correspondents, but also a certain type of private affection. The Romanian painters, the writers, the politicians who visited and met France felt part of the spirituality of the Hexagon, as French writers found fertile ground here, a prolongation of their own one," Cristescu said.
The exhibition is open throughout May 17.