Romfilatelia continues the series of themes dedicated to art and collectors, introducing into circulation a postage stamp issue with a unique theme, The Collections of Missing Museums, dedicated to recovering the memory of a museum once well known and appreciated in Bucharest: Simu Museum.
Each of the four stamps of the series of postage stamps presents the building of the Simu Museum, immortalized by a well-known photographer of the time, Hr. Duratzo, together with a work of art from the museum’s collection. The building has the shape of a Greek temple, inspired by the Erehteion temple in Athens, and was built especially to house the rich art collection of Anastase and Elena Simu.
In 1927, the collection, which already contained approximately 1,200 pieces, was donated to the Romanian state. Under the leadership of the painter Marius Bunescu, the Simu Museum functioned in this building until 1960, when the building was demolished by the communist authorities. Part of the collection is today at the National Museum of Art of Romania, and another in the Simu collection at the Pinacoteca București, managed by the Museum of Bucharest.
The four works of art represented on stamps are: Anastase Simu, bust sculpted by Frederick Storck; a static nature painted by Marius Bunescu: Pere; a Navy by Eugen Voinescu; Venice, work of the painter Ștefan Popescu.
The image on the first stamp of the series, with a face value of 3.30 lei, represents the work of Anastase Simu. The marble bust, made by the sculptor Frederic Storck in 1901, was in its place of honor in the second room of the Museum. Later, it arrived in the collection of the Frederic Storck and Cecilia Cuțescu-Storck Museum.
The second stamp of the show, with a face value of 5 lei, reproduces the work Pere, signed by Marius Bunescu, the former director of the Simu Museum. The work was donated by the painter himself in 1932 and exhibited in the Museum. It is today in the collection of the Bucharest Art Gallery.
On the third stamp of the series, with a face value of 8.50 lei, is the painting of the Navy by Eugen Voinescu, a painter with studies conducted in Paris around Gustave Courbet, who excelled in painting of this kind. The work was made in 1900 and purchased from the artist a year later. It is currently in the collection of the Bucharest Art Gallery.
Ștefan Popescu’s Venice, represented on the fourth stamp, with a face value of 10.50 lei, was painted by the artist in 1923 and has been exhibited over time in various exhibitions, most recently in 2020, during the exhibition opened at the Suțu Palace – Simu Museum and Bucharest Art Gallery.
On the “first day” envelope of the show, a vintage photograph, taken by the same Hr. Duratzo, captures the collector Anastase Simu in the third room of the Museum, sitting in the armchair right in front of his portrait, taken in 1909 by French artist Pierre Gourdault.
Romfilatelia thanks the Museum of Bucharest for the documentary and photographic support provided to this postage stamp issue.
