Alexandru Severin

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Alexandru Severin, born Alexandru Talpoșin, trained at the National School of Fine Arts in Bucharest before continuing his studies in Paris at the École des Beaux-Arts and the Académie Julian. Although financial constrains curtailed his formal education, he exhibited at the Salon Officiel and the Salon d’Automne as early as 1907, later joining the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts. A formative stay in Florence, in the workshop of Raffaelo Romanelli introduced him to the royal circle - a connection that shaped his subsequent career. In 1915, he founded the Cenaclul Idealist, conceived as a Romanian counterpart to the Salon d’Automne and supported by Princess Elisabeta and Crown Prince Carol. His interwar activity spanned sculpture, drawing, watercolour, and sanguine studies, including views of royal residences commissioned by Queen Marie. He also produced designs for public monuments and commemorative busts. His 1942–43 retrospective, presenting sculptures, drawings, and oils, remains a major statement of his oeuvre. Severin’s work bears the imprint of Rodin, particularly in symbolic busts of children and young women, where descriptive realism yields to a universalised, idealised expression. Through these works, he contributed alongside Paciurea and Brâncuși, to the consolidation of modern Romanian sculpture.