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nationalist sentiments and the fight for self-determination. Most of the
art of the period, therefore, represents historic and heroic subjects.
Foremost among the revolutionary artists were Gheorghe Tattarescu and
Theodor Aman, both extremely popular in their lifetime. Together, they
exerted a great influence on the development of fine arts in Romania by
founding the School of Fine Arts in Bucharest and by training young
artists. Aman, in particular, is considered the country's first great
modern painter.

By far the most outstanding artist of the nineteenth century was Nicolae
Grigorescu. His work remains extremely popular among Romanians, and his
lyrical landscapes and scenes of Romanian life are well known abroad.

The work of Stefan Luchian at the beginning of the twentieth century
introduced to Romania some of the avant-garde styles that were appearing
in European art elsewhere. Although he followed his predecessors in
painting landscapes and rural subjects, he opposed their conservative
style and introduced into his paintings a greater use of color than had
been common. He also introduced social themes into his paintings by
depicting the misery and poverty that were characteristic of the lives
of most people. His best paintings, however, are flower studies, which
bring out his love of color and of nature.

Luchian's break with tradition and his use of color were followed by a
number of artists, the most celebrated of whom was Nicolae Tonitza.
These and other artists of the interwar period were greatly influenced
by the impressionist and postimpressionist painters in Paris and Munich,
where they studied. Their landscapes, flower studies, and portraits show
the effective use of bright colors, which is considered characteristic
of Romanian art.

Because landscapes, floral studies, and other neutral subjects have
traditionally been the main concern of Romanian painters, this form of
artistic expression was the least affected by the strict controls of the
first decade of communist rule. A number of interwar artists and several
younger ones continued to produce their canvases in the precommunist
tradition, but during the 1960s some young artists experimented with
various avant-garde techniques and styles that were then current in
Western Europe. Although the government disapproved of these works, it
allowed the artists to exhibit them abroad and win considerable acclaim
for Romanian art. In the late 1960s the PCR