“In the first part of his creative activity he executed portraits and landscapes in a realistic-traditional vision, which he later abandoned in favor of a constructivist formula with figurative reminders and humorous nuances.

In 1945 he enrolled at the Institute of Arts in Iasi, where he had as teachers Corneliu Baba and Ion Irimescu, and graduated in 1950.

He gave a competition after which he received the Nicolae Grigorescu scholarship of the Romanian Academy, which consisted of one year of studies in Leningrad and one year in Paris. Thus, he attended advanced courses at the Repin Academy in Leningrad and the Free Academy in Paris, from where he continued at the International Institute of Pedagogical Studies in Sèvres.

He was a university professor at the George Enescu Conservatory in Iași, where he also held the position of rector.

He executed book illustrations for works by Ionel Teodoreanu, Anton Bacalbașa, Petru Prânzei and Valentin Ciucă.

His works can be found in museums in Romania: the Municipal Museum in Huși, the Art Museum in Iași, the Art Museum in Piatra Neamț, the “Casa Simian” Art Museum in Râmnicu Vâlcea, but also in museums and private collections abroad: Rio de Janeiro, Valletta, Poitiers, Mexico City, Prague, France, Italy, Israel, Greece, Germany.

One of the most controversial paintings was the one in which the couple Elena Ceaușescu and Nicolae Ceaușescu collide a glass of red wine with the ruler Ștefan cel Mare, who takes out of the painting a hand in which he holds a glass. “

He studied with Nicolae Vermont and George Demetrescu Mirea at the Ecole des Beaux Arts Paris.
Since 1919 he participates in the Official Salons in Bucharest, but also in the Salons of Independents in Paris and Laussanne.

He made the monumental work in Alba Iulia and Mamaia, painting all his life with the feeling of complete freedom and confessing, without inhibitions and stylistic stubbornness, in shapes and colors that betrayed the passion for clarity and expressiveness.

He rediscovered the greatness and tranquility of the landscapes. He also painted static natures, compositions, fragments of nature that impressed him, as well as faces captured in full activity.

Some landscapes remind of Cezanne, a Cezanne that the painter seems to want to know that he assimilated, with admiration.

He had his first personal exhibition in Iași, in the halls of the National Theater, in 1900. He was appointed professor at the Normal School (1901). He has personal exhibitions at the Athenaeum (1914 and 1915), Franklin Hall (1918 and 1919), Art (1921), Ileana (1925), Iasi (1927 and 1930), Dalles (1935 and 1937).

In 1916 he was appointed substitute teacher at the School of Fine Arts in Iasi. He exhibited at the Maison d’Art (1922-1923), the Vilagrosse Passage (1923), the Salon of Moldova (1942), Bucharest (1943).

The bench can be called the painter of the working class, due to the themes detached from the life of this social category. His painting is temperamental, sharp, a little primitive in sensations, expressionist in a plastic way.

Octav Băncilă enjoyed great popularity. He died on April 3, 1944, in Bucharest.

He traveled to Morocco and Algeria (1911-1913). Exhibits at the Official Salon. Drawing teacher in Bârlad.

During the First World War he was a prisoner in Turtucaia. Since 1919 he has been exhibiting at Tinerimea Artistică and at Romanian Art.

In 1934 he had a personal exhibition in Dalles. In 1936 he exhibited at the Mozart House. Between 1937-1942 he worked for the painting merchant Horovitz. In 1958 he retired as a retiree of the U.A.P.

Leon Biju made remarkable landscapes from his travels in Egypt, Morocco, Italy, which were successful. He painted many flowers and static natures.

He was a good cartoonist. He had a personal chromatic based on browns, his painting being praised by G. Oprescu, H. Blazian, E. Crăciun and others. He died on February 15, 1970, in Bucharest.