A Brâncusi sculpture, for the first time in Romania

A work made by the renowned Romanian sculptor Constantin Brancusi in 1905-1906, “Bust of a restaurant patron (Portrait of Achille Baldé)” is arriving for the first time in Romania and will be available exclusively at the Artmark Galleries. It is about “a work that has never been seen, (being) considered lost or destroyed”. The sculpture was recently awarded at an international auction in Paris, by a Romanian collector.

The unveiling event and the first meeting with the public of this work will take place on Saturday, February 17, at Palatul Cesianu-Racoviță (str. C.A. Rosetti no. 5), from 4 p.m., in the presence of Doina Lemny, Parisian art historian, researcher specialized in the work of the sculptor Constantin Brâncusi and one of the most famous exegetes of the work of the great artist, on an extraordinary visit to Romania. Doina Lemny will hold, on this special occasion, a conference in which she will detail little-known aspects of the artist’s biography, as well as the circumstances of the creation of this work considered lost. “Brâncusi Exclusiv”, is an exhibition that will be freely open to the public until February 25, and can be visited daily, from Monday to Sunday, between 10:00 and 20:00.

“Brâncusi National Day every year involves an evocation of the personality of the artist who has become a symbol of Romanian creativity. But it rarely happens that we bring to the public’s attention a work that has never been seen. This year, Artmark presents a completely new work, considered lost or destroyed – as the artist used to do. It has been represented so far by a single photograph from the collection of the English collector David Grob, which was presented in the Brâncusi exhibition in Timișoara – “Romanian sources and universal perspectives”, said Doina Lemny for Artmark.

“Portrait of Achille Baldé” is one of the last works made by the sculptor in the Impressionist manner, under the influence of his then master Auguste Rodin, before he began, in 1907, to carve directly in stone. This bust also appears in the photos from Constantin Brâncuși’s workshop in Dauphine Square no. 16 from Paris.

The sculpture depicts a male portrait with an impressive moustache à la française, and was long known as the “Portrait of M.G.”, out of confusion. It is, in fact, the portrait of Achille Baldé, a waiter in the cafe where Brâncuși worked, as a dishwasher, in the first year of his arrival in Paris. The work is reproduced in the most important Brâncusi catalogs, after a photograph kept at the Pompidou Center, and is a “link” that connects the Romanian works from before the Parisian era and what will follow starting from the years 1907-1908, namely “ The Prayer” and “The Goodness of the Earth”, works that pave the way for his famous modernist-abstracting masterpieces.

“Art is a mirror in which everyone sees what he thinks. In art what matters is joy. You don’t need to understand. You are happy to see! Beauty belongs to no one, it belongs to everyone and everyone gets it according to their abilities. My sculptures are not to be respected, but to be loved. You have to feel like playing with them. Look at my sculptures until you see them”, said Constantin Brâncuși (February 19, 1876, Hobita, Romania – March 16, 1957, Paris, France).