The work „Prayer” and the bust of lawyer Petre Stănescu

THE WORK „PRAYER” AND THE BUST OF LAWYER PETRE STĂNESCU Eliza Seceleanu, daughter of the great landowner, Nicolae Seceleanu, of Buzău, fell in love and married lawyer Petre Stănescu, a young man with high potential, but without fortune. Shortly after their marriage, in 1905, the young lawyer (31 years old) died. In his memory, Eliza commissioned a funerary monument to sculptor Constantin Brâncuși, at that time a pupil of great Auguste Rodin in Paris. The monument consisted of stone plinths, an allegorical figure of a crying woman and the bust of the deceased lawyer, the experts considering the work as a novelty in the art of Brâncuși, thus permanently detaching himself from classical sculpture and marking the beginning of a new era in world sculpture. The work was exhibited in 1910 in Paris, and in 1914 it was placed in Dumbrava Cemetery of Buzău. For this purpose, Brâncuși came to the town located in the Curvature Carpathians and personally carved the plinths of the two works in Măgura stone. The brother of the deceased, Justin Stănescu, a lawyer and politician, mayor of Buzău between 1918 and 1919, „posed” for the bust. In 1958 the National Museum of Art of Romania purchased the work „Prayer” from Eliza Seceleanu for 70,000 lei, and it was replaced with a replica. The bust of lawyer Petre Stănescu has been in the same museum since 1976, being replaced in the cemetery with a bronze replica. In 1996 the copy of the work „Prayer” was stolen from the cemetery. It was recovered in 1998 and replaced. In 2005 it was stolen again, along with the bust. Since 2014 another replica of the „Prayer” has been placed in Dumbrava Cemetery. In March 2016 the bust of lawyer Petre Stănescu (the copy stolen from the cemetery) was found and returned to its plinth in 2018. On 20th February 2020 in Dumbrava Cemetery of Buzău „Constantin Brâncuși Alley” was inaugurated, on which the „Prayer” and the bust of lawyer Petre Stănescu are located. Buzău joins the short list of cities that have works of Constantin Brâncuși exposed outdoors (Tîrgu Jiu, Bucharest, Paris).