Romania - Eastern Europe - page 505

attention to The Prayer (1907), in which he renders a young female subject in an
impossible kneeling position to stupendous effect. More wonderful sculpture includes
Oscar Han's The Kiss (1924), and the only male nude on display, Study of a Male Nude,
by Alexandru Pl â m â deal â .
From the Romanian art collections, cross the courtyard to get to the less gripping
Gallery of European Art, with its collection of 2,233 paintings, 578 sculptures, and
9,189 pieces of decorative art. Some astonishing lithographs are kept here, depicting
amusing historical scenes as well as quite terrible images of death and disease.
Calea Victoriei 49-53. & 021/313-3030. European Gallery: 021/314-8119. http://art.museum.ro. Admission L9
($3.25/£1.75). Combined ticket with Museum of Art Collections (see below) L16 ($5.75/£3). Free 1st Wed of each
month. Oct-Apr Wed-Sun 10am-6pm; May-Sept Wed-Sun 11am-7pm; last entry 30 min. before closing.
Muzeul Colec$iilor de Artâ North of the Ateneul Roman is the Museum of Art
Collections, occupying the Ghica Palace, or Casa Romanit, an early-19th-century
building that housed the country's supreme court from 1883 until the Communist
takeover. The art collections of the bourgeoisie were stored here during the time when
wealth was dangerously unfashionable. Today, the museum offers a condensed, man-
ageable version of the extensive National Art Museum farther south, enjoyed in peace—
don't be surprised if you are alone among a group of 20 museum attendants. The
collection includes a rich survey of notable 19th- and 20th-century Romanian artists,
together with some good, if anachronistic, religious icons. Particularly lovely are sculp-
tures by Bucharest-born artist Oscar Han (1891-1976), and the paintings by Nicolae
Grigorescu (1838-1907). Other favorites include fabulous nudes by Nicolae Tonzita
(1886-1940), Theodor Pallady's Femei în peisaj (six pale naked maidens frolicking in
the bushes, 1920), and Iosif Iser's intense, yet playful Dancer in an Armchair, directly
opposite a series of cartoons by Marcel Iancu (1895-1984). (Next door to the museum
is the atmospheric restaurant, Il Gattopardo Blu; see above.)
Calea Victoriei 111. & 021/659-6693. Ticket for individual collection: L7 ($2.50/£1.35). Combined ticket for the col-
lections of the National Art Museum (see above): L16 ($5.75/£3). Free admission on first Wed of each month. Oct-Apr
Fri-Weds 10am-6pm; May-Sept Fri-Wed 11am-7pm; last entry 30 min. before closing.
Muzeul #âranului Român Occupying an early-20th-century building by Nicolae
Ghica-Bude @ ti, the Museum of the Romanian Peasant is stocked full of furniture,
farming equipment, costumes, crucifixes, tapestries, textiles, and some very beautiful
religious icons; surprisingly, a great deal of the seemingly primitive technology on the
first floor is what continues to be used—along with many of the lifestyle objects kept
here—by rural communities to this day. During the Communist years, the building
housed the Museum of the Communist Party and Romanian Revolutionary Workers
Movement. On your way out, don't miss the basement exhibition (accessed via stairs
next to the entrance) devoted to that time; the smell of mothballs adds a strangely
appropriate atmosphere to a stirring display remembering Communism's collectiviza-
tion scheme, highlighted by numerous unattractive busts of Lenin. Entitled “The
Pest,” the exhibit is a “memorial of the pain and hurt land-collectivization caused to
the peasant world.” Oddly, the main exhibit is a desk (from which collective control
was exercised) littered with nutshells and onion peels. Tip: The souvenir shop here is
worth browsing.
!os. Kiseleff 3. & 021/650-5360. Admission L6 ($2.15/£1.15) adults; L2 (70¢/40p) seniors and students; audioguide
L10 ($3.60/£4.60). Tues-Sun 10am-6pm; last entry at 5pm.