ABOUT THE EXHIBITION
On February 18/March 5, 2016, it was one hundred years since the passing of Queen Elizabeth of Romania. A fascinating personality of our modern history, a very special figure of the Romanian royal family, whom the Peleș National Museum is now paying tribute to by organizing a special exhibition. An exhibition that aims to present to lovers of beauty a special portrait of the sovereign-poet Carmen Sylva by displaying valuable heritage pieces from the collections of the Peleș National Museum.
Some of the exhibits are personal creations of Queen Elizabeth and are a testament to the artistic talent of the sovereign, evoked by many of her contemporaries. On April 20, 1878, on the occasion of the birthday of the prince Carola, Princess Elisabeth gave her husband, as a gift, a painting representing a bouquet of leaves with strawberries and dandelions. Another work present in the exhibition – titled baby – was painted by Queen Elizabeth in 1883 and represents a young peasant woman in a mountainous landscape, which actually embodies an allegory of Romania. A similar drawing was published by Carmen Sylva in the princeps edition of the volume “The Tales of Peleș”, published in German in Leipzig, in 1883.
Also two years after the proclamation of the Kingdom of Romania, in 1883, Queen Elisabeth created the Inaugural Act of Peleș Castle, a valuable piece that occupies a special place in the exhibition. This artistic document speaks of the future of the royal residence in Sinaia, which became the “cradle of the Romanian Dynasty”. Two engravings from 1881 and three manuscripts of Queen Elisabeth (two of which with silver bindings and precious stones) complete the artist’s portrait of the queen poet Carmen Sylva. The exhibition also presents a lithographed manuscript notebook after “Die Sphinx”. This is a copy of Queen Elisabeth’s manuscript notebook and includes verses in German and French, along with Elena Văcărescu’s Romanian translation and musical scores by August Bungert on verses by Carmen Sylva.
Another passion of Queen Elisabeth of Romania – the art of embroidery, of lace – is illustrated in the exhibition organized by the Peleș National Museum by presenting some creations with certain artistic and memorial value. The marriage of Crown Prince Ferdinand with Princess Maria in 1893 gave Queen Elisabeth the opportunity to create an embroidery on coffee, preserved to this day. Another valuable piece – presented at the Universal Exhibition in Paris in 1900 – is Prince Carol's baptismal diaper, made of frivolité lace, in 1894, by Queen Elizabeth. Several pieces of lace worked with Queen Elizabeth's bobbin (pore covers, coffin covers, altar frames, cushions) complete the artistic portrait of the pious sovereign, immersed towards the end of her life in a deep religiosity. A special piece in this exhibition is Queen Elizabeth's bobbin, made of solid gold. The Peleș National Museum preserves in its collections pieces of furniture that bear the imprint of Queen Elizabeth's artistic talent, such as a circular table, the top of which was decorated by the sovereign with biblical scenes. A correspondence box was painted by Carmen Sylva with floral and vegetal motifs. Various pieces of furniture and decorative art that belonged to Queen Elizabeth and are presented in the exhibition complete the atmosphere that once reigned in Peleș Castle, so dear to the sovereigns of Romania. Made in important European workshops (Paul Telge from the German area, Emile Gallé from the French one) or even in Romania, all these pieces of heritage show the artistic taste of an era once called – with justifiable pride – “La Belle Époque”. The evocation of Queen Elizabeth’s complex personality cannot be complete without presenting the charitable activity that she carried out with rare devotion. This “holy benefactor” – as George Enescu remembered her – established hospitals in times of war and orphanages in times of peace. Princess Elizabeth was actively involved during the War of Independence by establishing a hospital in Cotroceni, where she took care of the wounded. Thus, Elizabeth earned the reputation of “mother of those who grieve”, immortalized in the works of several artists. The sculptor Carol Storck is present in the tribute exhibition organized by the Peleș National Museum with the work Elizabeth Caring for a Wounded.
The commemorative medal presented in the exhibition evokes the philanthropic activity of Queen Elizabeth, embodied in the establishment of the "Vatra Luminoasă" institute, dedicated to the care of the visually impaired, or the "Queen Elizabeth" Benevolent Society, which in 1902 established an asylum for the poor. The "Elena Doamna" asylum also enjoyed the protective attention of Queen Elizabeth, with a jubilee medal being issued in 1912 on the 50th anniversary of the asylum's existence.
As the iconography of Queen Elisabeth of Romania could not be missing from this tribute exhibition, the pièce de résistance is the splendid portrait made in 1872 by GP Al. Healy, which depicts Princess Elisabeth at the age of 28, dressed in a Wallachian folk costume. Two photo albums (one of which was donated by the mayor of Neuwied, on the occasion of the centenary of the sovereign’s birth) evoke sequences from the life of Queen Elisabeth of Romania. The image of the sovereign is also completed by the presentation of some cabinet portraits, from the photo library of the Peleș National Museum, the Romanian Academy Library – Cabinet of Stamps, the National Museum of History of Romania, the Bucharest Municipality Museum or from the private collections of Messrs. Mădălin Ghigeanu and Vlad Andreas Grunau.
Elisabeta was the first queen of Romania and at the same time, for half a century, she was an ambassador to the world of everything Romanian. A refined intellectual, knowledgeable in many foreign languages, she also learned Romanian and did this out of a desire for perfection, but also to understand herself and those whose fate had destined her to lead as fully as possible. She had rare qualities. A writer, an intellectual gifted with the ability to receive and accumulate various knowledge, an unsurpassed artist, she was a queen who made the country and the people who had brought her to their helm a goal in life, striving to spread their image beyond the borders. She went through life as if through a fairy tale, animated by humanity, actually living in parallel worlds, creating pleasant fictions for herself, oscillating between the Rhine of childhood and youth, the Danube and the Sea, and especially the Carpathians, where the palace of her new life would rise in Sinaia. Lady and then Queen Elisabeta, Carmen Sylva, the name with which she entered literature, the first queen of the country, remained an immortal memory for the following generations, although a century has passed since her disappearance from life and she should not be forgotten.
From BERINDA
Member of the Romanian Academy
VISITING THE EXHIBITION
The exhibition can be visited during:
September 2016 – December 2016