Szathmari's Bicentennial

The International Conference Szathmari, Pioneer Photographer, and his Contemporaries, organised on the artist’s bicentennial anniversary, was hosted by the Romanian Academy and the G. Oprescu Institute of Art History.

Carol Pop de Szathmari (1812-1887) was an outstanding artist based in Bucharest who made a brilliant career as both a painter and photographer. Due to his skills in various media and genres of the visual arts (i.e. water color, oil painting, lithography, oleography), he eventually became the official artist for the Romanian ruling princes beginning with Alexandru Ioan I (1863). Carol I, who followed him on the Romanian throne, duly encouraged and generously supported the skills of his court painter and photographer who, in that period (1866 until his death), attained the apex of his career.

To complement the conference, an exhibition entitled Szathmari’s Workshop – From Drawing to Chromolithography was shown in the Theodor Pallady Gallery of the Romanian Academy from 14 to 24 May. The conference was concluded with a guided tour through Szathmari’s Bucharest following his steps to the different civil and religious monuments he immortalized on his sensitized glass plates.

Coordinator: ADRIAN-SILVAN IONESCU

Photo album

Opening of the exhibition Szathmari’s Workshop – From Drawing to Chromolitography, Theodor Pallady Gallery ( Library of the Romanian Academy)

Military review dating from the period of Romania's Independence War (1877-78), staged by the "6 Dorobantzi" Association (Romanian Academy Gardens)

Aula Magna of the Romanian Academy

Welcome address:
Acad. RĂZVAN THEODORESCU

Keynote lecture
Prof. LARRY SCHAAF (independent historian of photography, Baltimore, Maryland, USA):
- Silver from Sunshine. The Photographic World of Szathmari

Dr. MONIKA FABER (Photoinstitut Bonartes, Vienna, Austria):
- Industriefotografie im Vielvölkerstaat: Ein Beispiel aus dem Banat

Dr. SILVANA RACHIERU (University of Bucharest/Romanian Cultural Institute in Istanbul):
- From Family Portraits to Imperial Propaganda: Photography in the Ottoman Empire

G. Oprescu Institute of Art History
Moderator: Dr. IOANA VLASIU

ADRIANA DUMITRAN (PhD student, National Library of Romania):
- Advertising graphic of Carol Szathmari’s photographic cards

CRISTIAN GRAURE (Banat Museum, Timişoara):
- A new vision on light. The 19th century Banat through the lens of the stereoscopic camera

LUCIAN CIUPEI (PhD student, Institute for Doctoral Studies, Babeş-Boliay University, Cluj-Napoca):
- Political image in Carol Popp de Szathmari's vision

ALFRED SCHUPLER (master student, National University of Arts, Bucharest):
- Veress Ferenc (1st of September 1832, Cluj Napoca - 3rd of April 1916, Cluj Napoca)

ADRIAN STAN (Prahova County Museum of History and Archeology, Ploieşti):
- Personalities from Ploieşti in photographs produced in Carol Popp de Szathmari's studio

Projection of the documentary The Eyewitness (2002, directed by Gabriel Cobasnian, screenplay and starring Adrian-Silvan Ionescu)

Photo album

Aula Magna of the Romanian Academy
Moderator: Dr. MONIKA FABER

Dr. IOANA VLASIU (G. Oprescu Institute of Art History, Bucharest):
- Photography as meeting-place of modernities. Szathmari revisited by Ion Grigorescu

CĂTĂLINA MACOVEI (Library of the Romanian Academy, Bucharest):
- Carol Pop de Szathmari. From photography to photochromation and oleography

Dr. RUXANDRA DREPTU ( Spiru Haret University, Bucharest):
- Szathmari, the painter-photographer of the far-away

HORIA VLADIMIR ŞERBĂNESCU (PhD student, National Military Museum “King Ferdinand I", Bucharest):
- Carol Szathmari, military photographer

MOLNAR ATTILA (PhD student, Society for the Transilvanian Museum of Photography, Miercurea Ciuc):
- The hidden portret of Szathmari

Dr. RUXANDA BELDIMAN (G. Oprescu Institute of Art History, Bucharest):
- Civil and ecclesiastical architecture in Carol Pop de Szathmari's photography

Visit to the Prints Cabinet of the Library of the Romanian Academy for a presentation of selected photographs by Carol Pop de Szathmari.
Welcome: Cătălina Macovei, head of the Cabinet of Prints.

G. Oprescu Institute of Art History
Moderator: Dr. RUXANDA BELDIMAN

NATALIA BANGĂLĂ (Library of the Romanian Academy, Bucharest):
- A selection of pictures from Carol Pop de Szathmari's albums “România” to be found in the Prints Cabinet of the Library of the Romanian Academy

EMANUEL BĂDESCU (Library of the Romanian Academy, Bucharest):
- Carol Szathmari pictures from the Prints Cabinet of the Library of the Romanian Academy

ÖRDÖG RÓBERT (collector, Miercurea Ciuc):
- Auction prices for Szathmari’s photos

Dr. ADRIAN-SILVAN IONESCU (G. Oprescu Institute of Art History, Bucharest):
- Carol Pop de Szathmari and Ulysse de Marsillac: two destinies, one friendship

Cotroceni National Museum: visit of the retrospective art exhibition Carol Pop de Szathmari, painter and photographer.
Welcome: Adina Renţea, Director of Cotroceni National Museum.

Photographs: Sorin Chițu

OUR PARTENERS AND SPONSORS

back to top