Works of Fine Art on the Theme of Night from the Collection of Dr Nicolae Minovici
Works of Fine Art on the Theme of Night from the Collection of Dr Nicolae Minovici

Summary/Abstract: This study examines how the theme of the night is represented in a selection of paintings from the art collection of Dr. Nicolae Minovici, preserved within the Bucharest Municipality Museum. The research is motivated by the need to document and reassess a largely unstudied private collection, thereby contributing to a better understanding of Romanian collecting practices in the early twentieth century and enriching the scholarship on lesser-known Romanian modern painters. By focusing on works by Nicolae Vermont, Henri Viscont, Aurel Vintilescu and Ionescu Doru, the article seeks to understand how night-time imagery was constructed, imagined and culturally interpreted in Romanian and European visual culture of the period. The study employs a thematic and comparative methodology, combining formal visual analysis with insights drawn from specialized literature on symbolist and impressionist painting, as well as historical documentation, such as war memoirs. This interdisciplinary approach makes it possible to read the selected paintings as anthropological documents that record both imagined and historical experiences associated with the night. The findings show that nocturnal imagery functions across three main registers: the private night of interiority, rest, and erotic reverie; the modern urban night shaped by artificial lighting, mobility, and leisure; and the anxious or meditative night of wartime scarcity, collective vulnerability and commemoration. These layers reveal how artists used night- time settings to capture emotional states, urban transformations and the lived realities of conflict. The research demonstrates that the Minovici collection offers valuable material for understanding the cultural imagination of the night and highlights the potential of visual anthropology in interpreting early modern Romanian art.

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