Information
Romania’s National Museum of Art preserves a comprehensive collection of Netherlandish, Dutch and Flemish art, assembled initially by King Carol I in the nineteenth century, and subsequently by the Royal Family and various collectors up to 1948, when the museum was founded.
The main corpus consists of paintings, with over 150 items ranging from the early sixteenth to the late seventeenth century. The most valuable 71 paintings are on permanent display in the Gallery of European Art. Among the most prominent artists are Pieter Aertsen, Jan Sanders van Hemessen, Bartholomeus Spranger, Abraham Bloemaert, Joachim Wtewael, Pieter Brueghel the Younger, Jan Brueghel the Elder, Peter Paul Rubens, David Teniers II, Frans Francken, Frans Snyders, Rembrandt school, Albert Cuyp, Samuel van Hoogstraten, Govaert Flinck, and Rachel Ruysch.
The museum also holds several drawings, the most valuable of which were produced by Hendrick Goltzius, Rembrandt, and Caspar van Wittel, and over 300 prints, by artists such as Aegidius Sadeler, Jan Pietersz. Saenredam, Jan Collaert, Anthony van Dyck, Paulus Pontius, Paulus Potter, and Adrian van Ostade.
In addition, the Gallery of European Decorative Arts displays a small but valuable quantity of Delftware, a remarkable piece of furniture, and a splendid tapestry from sixteenth-century Brussels.
Mălina Conțu, Head of the European Art Department (September 2025)