Constantin Daniel Rosenthal

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Constantin Daniel Rosenthal
Portrait of Rosenthal by Ion Negulici
Born
Rosenthal Konstantin

c. 1820
Pest, Austrian Empire
DiedJuly 22, 1851 (1851-07-23)
Pest, Austrian Empire
NationalityAustrian, Wallachian
Known forpainting
MovementRomanticism

Constantin Daniel Rosenthal (b. Pest, Austrian Empire: Rosenthal Konstantin, 1820 – July 23, 1851) was an ethnically Romanian painter and sculptor of Austrian-Jewish birth and a 1848 revolutionary, best known for his portraits and his choice of Romanian Romantic nationalist subjects.

Biography

Early career

Born into a

Ioan D. Negulici
.

Rosenthal arrived in

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 ethic:

"There are many Romanians here [but] none of them have to bear the cold Rosenthal has to [in his lodging]. Strange how the noble aim enpowers... there truly are plenty elloquent proofs that the man shall become great!".[1]

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.[2]

Wallachian revolution

Lithograph of a group portrait by Rosenthal. From left: Rosenthal (wearing a phrygian cap), C. A. Rosetti
, and an unknown revolutionary

In 1846, the profit from his works afforded him a trip to

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.[3] 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".[4] In his correspondence with Rosetti, he later testified: "I never would have thought that I could be as Wallachian as I am now".[5]

The Government assigned him the designing of a

Gypsies").[6]

Exile

Revolutionary Romania (portrait of Maria Rosetti)

In late September, after

Sviniţa, where they convinced the Austrian mayor to disarm the Ottoman guards, and allow the prisoners to go free.[7]

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)[8]
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,[9] he decided to return to Wallachia in an attempt to rekindle the radical movement.

His plan was divulged by spies of the

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".[10] Pressured to reveal his connections and refusing to comply, Rosenthal was tortured to death[citation needed]; his body was never returned to his family.[11]

In 1878, Maria Rosetti wrote a piece for Mama şi Copilul magazine, in which she praised her deceased friend:

"[Rosenthal was] 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."[12]

Gallery

  • Romania Breaking off Her Chains on the Field of Liberty
    Romania Breaking off Her Chains on the Field of Liberty
  • Portrait of Maria Rosetti
    Portrait of Maria Rosetti
  • Portrait of a woman (1844)
    Portrait of a woman (1844)
  • Convalescence
    Convalescence
  • Anica Manu with her child
    Anica Manu with her child
  • Portrait of Nicolae Golescu
    Portrait of Nicolae Golescu
  • Portrait of Teodor Arion
    Portrait of Teodor Arion
  • Vanity (1848)
    Vanity (1848)

Notes

  1. ^ Rosetti, in Frunzetti, p.12, in Scurtă istorie..., p.63
  2. ^ Frunzetti, p.23-24, 31
  3. ^ Scurtă istorie..., p.65
  4. ^ Frunzetti, p.17; Scurtă istorie..., p.65
  5. ^ Rosenthal, in Frunzetti, p.17, in Scurtă istorie..., p.65
  6. ^ Frunzetti, p.18; Scurtă istorie..., p.66-67
  7. ^ Frunzetti, p.20
  8. ^ Frunzetti, p.22
  9. ^ Frunzetti, p.27
  10. ^ Accusation rendered in Frunzetti, p.28
  11. ^ Frunzetti, p.28
  12. ^ Ion C. Butnaru, The Silent Holocaust: Romania and Its Jews, Praeger/Greenwood, Westport, 1992, p.13

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Constantin Daniel Rosenthal.
  • Academia Republicii Populare Romîne, Institutul de Istoria Artei, Scurtă istorie a artelor plastice în R.P.R., II, Secolul XIX, Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, Bucharest, 1958, p. 61-68
  • Neagu Djuvara, Între Orient şi Occident. Ţările române la începutul epocii moderne, Humanitas, Bucharest, 1995, p. 359-360
  • Ion Frunzetti, Pictorul revoluţionar C.Rosenthal, Ed. de Stat pentru Literatură şi Artă, Bucharest, 1955
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