Recently rediscovered Brâncuși sculpture exhibited for the first time in Romania

Portrait of Achille Baldé, a sculpture by Constantin Brâncuși that was considered lost and rediscovered in 2023, will be exhibited for the first time in Romania this week. The 1905-1906 bust will go on display at Galeriile Artmark in Bucharest.

“It’s ‘an artwork that has never been seen, (being) considered lost or destroyed.’ The sculpture was recently bought at an international auction in Paris by a Romanian collector,” Artmark said in the press release.

The unveiling event will take place at 4 pm on Saturday, February 17, at Cesianu-Racoviță Palace, in the presence of Doina Lemny, a Parisian art historian and researcher specialized in the work of the sculptor Constantin Brâncuși. On this occasion, she will hold a conference detailing little-known aspects of the artist's biography, as well as the circumstances of the creation of this work considered lost.

The event, marking the Constantin Brâncuși National Day, kicks off "Brâncuși Exclusiv" - an exhibition that will be open to the public until February 25, Monday to Sunday, between 10 am and 8 pm.

“The annual Brâncuși National Day involves an evocation of the artist's personality, which 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 unique artwork, considered lost or destroyed - as the artist used to do. So far, it has been represented by a single photograph from the collection of the English collector David Grob, which was presented at the Brâncuși exhibition in Timișoara,” Doina Lemny told Artmark.

Portrait of Achille Baldé is one of the sculptor’s last works made in the impressionist manner, under the influence of his then master Auguste Rodin, before he began, in 1907, to carve directly in stone, Artmark explained. The bust also appears in the photos from Constantin Brâncuși's workshop in Dauphine Square, Paris.

The sculpture depicts a portrait of a man with an impressive mustache à la française, and was long known as the "Portrait of M.G.” According to the organizers, it is, in fact, the portrait of Achille Baldé, a waiter in the café where Brâncuși worked as a dishwasher in the first year of his arrival in Paris.

(Photo source: Artmark)