Everything about Constantin Daniel Rosenthal totally explained
Constantin Daniel Rosenthal (
b.
Pest,
Hungary:
Rosenthal Konstantin, 1820—
July 23,
1851) was a Romanian painter and sculptor of
Hungarian birth and a
1848 revolutionary, best known for his
portraits and his choice of
Romanian Romantic nationalist subjects.
Biography
Early career
Born into a
Jewish merchant family in
Pest (part of the
Austrian Empire at the time), he left the city at the age of seventeen in order to attend the
Vienna Academy of Fine Arts, where he studied
archeological drawing (graduating in 1839) and made his first Romanian acquaintance, the painter
Ioan D. Negulici.
Rosenthal arrived in
Bucharest, the capital of
Wallachia, around 1842, where he was probably commissioned to pay the first in a long series of
boyar's portraits. He was introduced to the
liberal-
radical circles by Negulici, becoming very close to
C. A. Rosetti.
Dissatisfied with his
oil painting technique, he left for
France in late 1844, he attended art courses in
Paris, and began attending meetings of Wallachian and
Moldavian students who expressed nationalist and radical ideals. He was accompanied by Rosetti, who praised Rosenthal's work ethics:
"There are many Romanians here [but] none of them have to bear the cold Rosenthal has to [inhis lodging]. Strange how the noble aim enpowers... there truly are plenty elloquent proofs that the man shall become great!".
This is the most likely date of his multiple portrait, kept only in its
lithograph rendition, showing Rosetti embracing Rosenthal himself and a third, unknown person - Rosenthal painted himself wearing a
phrygian cap.
Wallachian revolution
In 1846, the profit from his works afforded him a trip to
England; upon his return to Paris, he was informed of his family's financial destitution, and left for
Budapest in early 1847, only to leave in summer for
Mehadia, and then, in August, for Bucharest. Rosenthal again joined the radical circles, this time as a member of the
secret society Frăţia, which was by then masking itself as a
literary society presided by
Iancu Văcărescu, and was commissioned by
Vasile Alecsandri to paint a portrait of the deceased
Elena Negri after a
daguerrotype. He also painted the portrait of
Anica Manu, the wife of
Aga Iancu Manu.
Upon the outbreak of the revolution, Rosenthal was spared the first wave of repression ordered by
Prince Gheorghe Bibescu - given the fact that he carried an Austrian passport. On
June 18,
1848, soon after the Provisional Government took hold, Rosenthal applied for Wallachian
citizenship (in theory,
Romanian - as the new administrative body indicated its goal in the union of the two
Danubian Principalities); the document giving him the right of
naturalization justified it as "taking in view his talent and the active part he played in the revolution". In his correspondence with Rosetti, he later testified: "I never would have thought that I could be as Wallachian as I'm now".
The Government assigned him the designing of a
triumphal arch in Bucharest, one meant to mark the success of the revolution, and, probably, of a
Statue of Liberty (the latter project only survives in a
watercolour by
Theodor Aman,
Dezrobirea Ţiganilor - "The Freeing of the
Gypsies").
Exile
In late September, after
Ottoman troops intervened against the revolution, most radicals were arrested and
transported on board small vessels on the
Danube, to exile in various locations. Rosenthal made public his request to join them, but was answered that Austrian protection still applied to him, and, although he requested to be viewed as a Wallachian, was denied permission to board. Subsequently, he and Rosetti's wife
Maria followed the ships on shore from
Giurgiu to
Sviniţa, where they convinced the Austrian mayor to disarm the Ottoman guards, and allow the prisoners to go free.
He returned to Pest-Buda, which was still witnessing the
Hungarian revolution at the time, left for Paris in May 1850, and subsequently joined Romanian exiles in carrying out
propaganda work. His most celebrated paintings, two
national personifications —
România revoluţionară ("Revolutionary Romania", which was also a portrait of Maria Rosetti) and
România rupându-şi cătuşele pe Câmpia Libertăţii ("Romania Breaking off Her Chains on the Field of Liberty") —, date from this period.
Persecution and killing
Soon without money, Rosenthal left for
Switzerland, and lived for a while in late 1850 in the town of
Porrentruy, before leaving for
Fribourg, then
Chur, in the first days of 1851. In
Graz until July, where he began receiving some attention from critics, he decided to return to Wallachia in an attempt to rekindle the radical movement.
His plan was divulged by spies of the
Second French Republic (already under the authority of
Prince-President Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte), who read Rosenthal's correspondence in Paris; the Austrians arrested the painter during his presence in Pest-Buda, citing his "imprudent political statements". Pressured to reveal his connections and refusing to comply, Rosenthal was
tortured to death; his body was never returned to his family.
In 1878, Maria Rosetti wrote a piece for
Mama şi Copilul magazine, in which she praised her deceased friend:
"[Rosenthalwas] one of the best and the most loyal people that God created after His image. He died for Romania, for its liberties; he died for his Romanian friends. [...] This friend, this son, this martyr of Romania is an Israelite. His name was Daniel Rosenthal."
Gallery
Click on an image to view it enlarged.
Image:Rosenthal - Romania rupandu-si catusele pe Campia Libertatii.jpg|Romania Breaking off Her Chains on the Field of Liberty
Image:Constantin Daniel Rosenthal - Maria Rosetti.jpg|Portrait of Maria Rosetti
Image:Rosenthal Női arckép 1844.jpg|Portrait of a woman (1844)
Image:Constantin Daniel Rosenthal - Convalescenta.jpg|Convalescence
Image:Constantin Daniel Rosenthal - Anica Manu cu copilul.jpg|Anica Manu with her child
Image:Constantin Daniel Rosenthal - Portretul lui Nicolae Golescu.jpg|Portrait of Nicolae Golescu
Image:Constantin Daniel Rosenthal - Portretul lui Teodor Arion.jpg|Portrait of Teodor Arion
Image:Constantin Daniel Rosenthal - Vanitas (1848).jpg|Vanity (1848)
Further Information
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