It began in two small rooms on a second floor, and the records of its first twenty years burned.
At a glance
The National University of Arts in Bucharest descends from the National School of Fine Arts, founded in 1864 by decree of Prince Alexandru Ioan Cuza. The painters Theodor Aman and Gheorghe Tattarescu drove its creation, and Aman led it until his death. It became the Academy of Fine Arts in 1931 and took its present name and status at the end of the 1990s. Its rectorate is at 19 Strada General Constantin Budișteanu, in the first sector of the city.
Key facts
- Founded: 1864, by decree of Prince Alexandru Ioan Cuza; the princely approval was obtained in June of that year through the efforts of Dimitrie Bolintineanu
- Founders: the painters Theodor Aman and Gheorghe Tattarescu
- First headmaster: Theodor Aman, who held the post until his death in 1891
- First premises: two small rooms on the second floor of the old University of Bucharest building
- Lost: the archives of the school’s first twenty years, in a fire in March 1884
- Renamed: Academy of Fine Arts in 1931; National University of Arts today
- Rectorate: Strada General Constantin Budișteanu 19, sector 1
- GPS: 44.4434, 26.0903 · Open in Google Maps
History
Romania in 1864 was three years old as a union of principalities and was building the institutions of a state: a university, a civil code, a school of fine arts. The last of those had two advocates in particular, Theodor Aman and Gheorghe Tattarescu, both painters trained abroad who had come home to a country with no formal art teaching at all. The approval of Prince Alexandru Ioan Cuza was obtained in June 1864, with the help of the writer and politician Dimitrie Bolintineanu.
The beginning was modest to the point of comedy: the first classes were held in two small rooms on the second floor of the old University of Bucharest building. Aman became headmaster and stayed until he died in 1891, which means the school’s entire first generation of Romanian painters passed through the hands of one of its founders.
In March 1884 a fire destroyed the archives of the school’s first twenty years. Whatever is known of that period is therefore known at second hand, which is worth saying on a page that gives dates.
The street, and the name on it
The street was named in 1911 after Constantin Budișteanu, an officer who distinguished himself at Plevna in the Russo-Turkish war of 1877–78 — the war through which Romania won its independence — and who later became a major general and minister of war.
This page has no photograph yet
We publish only images we are allowed to publish, and we have found no freely licensed photograph of this building. Nor have we found a reliable account of the building’s own history: the sources we checked document the institution, not the house it occupies. If you can supply either — a photograph, or the building’s dates — we will add it with the credit you ask for.
Sources & resources
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