Foreign Engravings

The drawings of our collection represent the main moments of the European and Far Eastern engraving history, starting with the 16th century and reaching up to the 20th century. The German, French, Flemish, Dutch, Italian, Austrian engraving collections are impressive, as they contain drawings of special artistic or documentary value. Of great importance for Romania is the portrait of Mihai Viteazu belonging to the Flemish artist Aegidius Sadeler (1560-1601), the portraitist of the emperor Rudolf the 2nd. The artist met the Romanian ruler, (the unifier of the three Romanian countries) and represented him in full force and majesty, as Mihai Viteazu himself was. The Dutch engraving school was made famous by the original engraving technique in aquaforte preferred by painters. The collection gathers significant works by J. Ruysdael, J. Both, Jan van de Velde, A. van Ostade, and so on. Out the 80 sheets created by the Dutch engraving master Rembrandt Harmensz van Rijn (1606-1669) , our collection includes “The Death of the Virgin”, “Christ Driving the Money Changers from the Temple”, editions from the 17th century, reflecting the innovative genius of the great artist.
The Spanish school is represented in our collection by a series of sheets by Francisco Goya (1746-1828). We also have a copy of the “Los Capricios” (1799), a series of fantastic compositions, having a touch of social satire, in aquatint, after the original sheets, which were given by the artist as a present to King Carol the 6th. The sheets belong to the 1855 edition.