Constantin Brâncuși and the Tătărescu family

The invitation (1934–1935)

The National League of Gorj Women wanted a monument to the heroes of Gorj who fell in the First World War. The League’s president, Arethia Tătărescu, first offered the commission to the sculptor Milița Petrașcu. She declined and said that Brâncuși was the most suitable choice.¹ In 1934, on Milița’s advice, Arethia invited Brâncuși.² According to the account of the engineer Ștefan Georgescu-Gorjan, she reportedly visited him in Paris in the second half of that year.³

For Brâncuși, the invitation came from a place dear to him. As early as 1930 he had hoped to raise a monument to the heroes near his native village, Hobița.³

His answer came on 11 February 1935, in a letter to Milița Petrașcu. Brâncuși thanked her “and also Mrs Tătărascu for the privilege she wishes to give me”. He promised to come to Romania and wished to hold an exhibition in Bucharest.³ Milița Petrașcu sold the letter to the Romanian Academy in 1966.⁴

The summers at Poiana

The Tătărescu family spent their summers at the manor at Poiana, in Gorj, and Brâncuși went there too. Arethia Tătărescu recalled how the sculptor took out a photograph and said: “I decided in Paris that the monument would be an endless column. Here it is!”³

The year of the meeting differs between sources. Arethia’s account links it to Brâncuși’s arrival in Romania in 1937.³ Her daughter, Sanda Tătărescu-Negropontes, however, remembered “the whole summer of 1936”.⁴⁵ Sanda also said that Prime Minister Gheorghe Tătărescu was at Poiana too, “but Brâncuși had an aversion to politics”.⁴

In Târgu Jiu (1937–1938)

Brâncuși came to Romania in June 1937, intending to make a single work.³ In Târgu Jiu he lived in the Gănescu house, both in 1937 and in 1938.⁶ The main moments:

• September 1937. The Column is cast at the Petroșani Central Workshops.²
• 7 November 1937. The Patriarch consecrates the Church of the Holy Apostles on Calea Eroilor (the Heroes’ Way), built by the League. Prime Minister Gheorghe Tătărescu and representatives of the Royal House attend the ceremony. Brâncuși, the guest of honour, films the event and then returns to Paris.²⁷
• Early 1938. He leaves for India, for Indore.⁸
• June – 20 September 1938. He returns to Târgu Jiu to finish the work.⁷
• 27 October 1938. The ensemble is inaugurated.

It is not known for certain whether Brâncuși attended the inauguration. The inauguration had been postponed twice, from 18 September to 14 October and then to 27 October. Ion Alexandrescu, the head of the stone carvers, stated “categorically that the sculptor was not present”. Other sources say that he attended.⁷

Brâncuși did not accept payment for the work.⁹ The League raised money through its own work and through exhibitions. The government contributed as well: the Prime Minister obtained five million lei from the Ministry of Public Works for opening the road and for expropriations.⁵ On the League’s donation, see the 1937 letter.

How Brâncuși named his works

The names by which the three pieces are known today do not all come from Brâncuși:¹⁰¹¹¹²

• The Column. Brâncuși wrote “Coloana fără sfârșit” (the Endless Column; in French, colonne sans fin) and, more rarely, “Coloana infinită” (the Infinite Column). The phrase “Coloana Infinitului” (the Column of the Infinite) is not his.
• The Gate of the Kiss. The name first appears in print in an interview published in the newspaper Seara on the very day of the inauguration. It is the journalist’s phrase, not a quotation from the sculptor.
• The Table of Silence. According to the Brâncuși Centre, no one heard Brâncuși give it a name. Georgescu-Gorjan quoted him as saying, in jest, “Let’s sit at the table of the hungry”.

The parcels of the war years

During the war years, the link with the family continued through Milița Petrașcu. On 30 March 1943 she wrote to Brâncuși: “Mrs Arethia Tătărescu and I are happy […] to send you some provisions from home”. The parcels continued in December 1943, and then in 1946.⁷¹

The lost letters

The correspondence between Brâncuși and Arethia Tătărescu has not survived. According to historians, it was destroyed by the Securitate, the communist secret police, in the spring of 1950, when Gheorghe Tătărescu was arrested. All the papers and books at the family’s home in Bucharest were burned at that time.⁴ Petre Pandrea wrote that the letters were confiscated.¹³ Only the draft of one letter from Brâncuși to Arethia has survived, with the sketch of the Gate. It was published in the volume Brâncuși inedit (“Unpublished Brâncuși”).¹¹

Brâncuși and Milița Petrașcu

Milița Petrașcu worked in Brâncuși’s Paris studio between 1919 and 1923, and again in 1927.¹⁴ They remained friends until his death.¹ In the 1930s, in Paris, she made a portrait bust of him. An enlarged version of the bust was placed in Dorobanți Square in Bucharest in April 2001.¹⁴¹⁵

After 1938

Brâncuși’s relationship with Romania became difficult after the war:

• 7 March 1951. The Romanian Academy rejects the proposal to admit Brâncuși as a member. George Călinescu then declared that Brâncuși “cannot be considered a creator in sculpture”.¹⁶
• 1952. Brâncuși receives French citizenship.¹⁷
• 1956. In his will he leaves his studio to the French state, on condition that it be reconstructed. The studio stands today next to the Centre Pompidou.¹⁸
• December 1956. The first solo Brâncuși exhibition in Europe opens in Bucharest.¹⁹
• 16 March 1957. He dies in Paris and is buried at Montparnasse.¹⁹
• 1990. He is elected a posthumous member of the Romanian Academy.⁸

The widely circulated story that the Romanian state refused a donation of the studio is disputed. The art historian Doina Lemny says there is “no trace, no letter” of any such intention.²⁰

Brâncuși and the Tătărescu House

No source documents a work made by Brâncuși for the Tătărescu House. Nor does any source say that the sculptor visited the house at 19 Polonă Street. The pieces in the house linked to his school are those by Milița Petrașcu: the salon fireplace and the door frames.

The house’s link with Brâncuși is one of people. The woman who brought him to Târgu Jiu lived here, and so did the Prime Minister whose government contributed to the opening of Calea Eroilor.

Brâncuși Year (2026)

Under Law no. 140/2025, 2026 was declared the “Constantin Brâncuși Year”, on the 150th anniversary of the sculptor’s birth.²¹ The anniversary was marked with exhibitions in several cities:

• Bucharest: the National Museum of Art of Romania, in February;
• Târgu Jiu: the “Brâncuși 150” exhibition;
• Rome: Mercati di Traiano;
• Berlin: a retrospective at the Neue Nationalgalerie, organised together with the Centre Pompidou.²²²³

Notes and sources

1. „Milița Petrașcu, eleva lui Brâncuși” [Milița Petrașcu, Brâncuși’s pupil], Radio România Internațional. rri.ro ↩ ↩² ↩³

2. „#AnulBrâncuși: Ansamblul Monumental «Calea Eroilor» de la Târgu Jiu” [#BrâncușiYear: the “Heroes’ Way” Monumental Ensemble at Târgu Jiu], Agerpres, 19 May 2026. agerpres.ro ↩ ↩² ↩³

3. Sorin Lory Buliga, „Ansamblul monumental de la Târgu Jiu” [The monumental ensemble at Târgu Jiu], Historia Special, no. 24, 2018. historia.ro ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

4. Adina Andrițoiu, „Brâncuși la Poiana Gorjului” [Brâncuși at Poiana in Gorj], UZPR, 18 March 2025. uzpr.ro ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

5. „Celebrele sculpturi ale lui Brâncuși împlinesc 82 de ani” [Brâncuși’s famous sculptures turn 82], Adevărul. adevarul.ro ↩ ↩²

6. „File din istoria casei slugerului Gănescu, monument de patrimoniu în care a locuit Brâncuși” [Pages from the history of the house of the sluger Gănescu, the heritage monument where Brâncuși lived], Cult-ura. cult-ura.ro ↩

7. Zenovie Cârlugea, „O zi de neuitat în istoria culturii: 27 octombrie 1938, inaugurarea ansamblului brâncușian (II)” [An unforgettable day in the history of culture: 27 October 1938, the inauguration of the Brâncuși ensemble (II)], Gorjeanul, 2015. gorjeanul.ro ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

8. „Constantin Brâncuși”, Wikipedia (English). en.wikipedia.org ↩ ↩²

9. „Sculptural Ensemble of Constantin Brâncuși at Târgu Jiu”, Wikipedia (English). en.wikipedia.org ↩

10. „Denominațiile operelor din ansamblul sculptural brâncușian de la Târgu Jiu” [The names of the works in the Brâncuși sculptural ensemble at Târgu Jiu], Centrul Brâncuși. centrulbrancusi.ro ↩

11. „Titulatura ansamblului brâncușian” [The title of the Brâncuși ensemble], Centrul Brâncuși. centrulbrancusi.ro ↩ ↩²

12. „Masa Tăcerii” [The Table of Silence], Centrul Brâncuși. centrulbrancusi.ro ↩

13. „Constantin Brâncuși în viziunea lui Petre Pandrea” [Constantin Brâncuși as seen by Petre Pandrea], Gorjeanul. gorjeanul.ro ↩

14. „O personalitate pe zi: sculptorița Milița Petrașcu” [A personality a day: the sculptor Milița Petrașcu], Agerpres, 31 December 2022. agerpres.ro ↩ ↩²

15. „Monumental art: Brâncuși by Milița Petrașcu”, Curatorial. curatorial.ro ↩

16. „Brâncuși a vrut să doneze statului român peste 200 de opere?” [Did Brâncuși want to donate over 200 works to the Romanian state?], Historia. historia.ro ↩

17. „Constantin Brâncuși”, Wikipedia (Romanian). ro.wikipedia.org ↩

18. „L’Atelier Brancusi” [The Brancusi Studio], Centre Pompidou. centrepompidou.fr ↩

19. „Biografie Constantin Brâncuși” [Constantin Brâncuși: biography], Centrul Brâncuși, Târgu Jiu. centrulbrancusi.ro ↩ ↩²

20. „Misterele marelui Brâncuși, legende demontate” [The mysteries of the great Brâncuși: legends debunked] (interview with Doina Lemny), Adevărul, 2023. adevarul.ro ↩

21. Legea nr. 140/2025 privind instituirea anului 2026 ca „Anul Constantin Brâncuși” [Law no. 140/2025 establishing 2026 as the “Constantin Brâncuși Year”], Monitorul Oficial no. 694 of 24 July 2025. juridice.ro ↩

22. „2026, Anul Constantin Brâncuși: inițiativele instituțiilor de cultură” [2026, the Constantin Brâncuși Year: the initiatives of cultural institutions], Ministerul Culturii. cultura.ro ↩

23. „Constantin Brâncuși, amplă retrospectivă la Neue Nationalgalerie din Berlin” [Constantin Brâncuși, major retrospective at the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin], Institutul Cultural Român. icr.ro ↩