At the beginning of the First World War, the Avakian family (mother, three girls and two boys), like many other families who escaped the 1915 pogrom, left their homeland and took refuge in Romania, first settling in Dobrogea, at Balchik. Here, seeing his worthiness and enthusiasm, Jean Alexandru Steriadi proposed to Avakian to come to Bucharest, offering him shelter at the Kalinderu Museum, of which he was director, and hired him as a museum guard.

Hrandt Avakian was based on free painting studies performed by the masters of Romanian fine arts such as Jean Alexandru Steriadi and Alexandru Satmari.

Hrandt Avakian exhibited in many painting exhibitions in Bucharest (1928,1943, 1957, 1963, 1967 and 1975) and in Yerevan (Armenia) (1960 and 1962)

He also participated in the “Drawing and Engraving Salon” in Bucharest, in 1930, as well as in the “Official Salon” in 1934.

Also in 1934, Hrandt Avakian and Ștefan Constantinescu open in Bucharest an exhibition with paintings depicting Balchik.

His works are exhibited in museums in Romania, such as the “Zambaccian Museum” in Bucharest, the “National Museum of Art” in Cluj and the “Museum of Art” in Constanța, but also in collections abroad (France, Bulgaria, Germany, Lebanon, Russia and the USA).

After the Second World War, Hrandt and his sister Beatrice began to systematically collect art objects, which they donated to the Romanian state in 1971. Starting with 1974, this collection became accessible to the public, in the building in Str. Architect Ion Mincu no. 19.

The collection of brothers Beatrice and Hrandt Avakian, made up of oriental art objects, paintings on silk and ivory figurines from Japan, statuettes from India, Tibet, Arab countries, goldsmith’s pieces made by craftsmen from Sibiu, England or France, but also a series of paintings by artists such as Grigorescu, Pallady, Steriadi or Petrașcu, remained in this location until 1978, when it was transferred to the Museum of Art Collections.

He left for France, to Paris, and enrolled at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière, after which he rented his own workshop in Montmartre (1912-1913). He returned to the country in 1913.

In 1895, he enrolled at the Academy of Arts, in Uhde’s studio. In 1897, he worked with Hollosy in Baia Mare. He also studied at the Julian Academy with Jean Paul Laurens. Exhibits in Paris. Back in the country, he exhibits at the exhibition of living artists. He participated in the establishment of the Artistic Youth Society in 1902, and, as its founder, enjoyed success.

His compositions are praised. In 1902, he organized the first personal exhibition. N. Grigorescu expresses his admiration for his painting. He works intensely on landscapes from Moldova, Brăila, Herța. He also makes drawings. The impressionism of his painting acquires a particular note, devoid of spontaneity. He exhibited Artistic Youth in Athens and Munich. He is awarded at the Official Salon. He also stands out as a portraitist, being considered the equal of G.D.Mirea. Executes murals: the ceiling of the houses Kalinderu and Cantacuzino. He paints nudes in a secessionist spirit. Over time, his painting becomes idyllic. During the war he remained in Bucharest, under German occupation, which made public opinion unfavorable to him later.

He organizes a free painting academy. Along with the offensive against Artistic Youth, Verona suffers a lot of criticism. His last prestigious event was in 1921, with a large personal exhibition. Participates in the Venice Biennale. He continues to be appointed to the jury, but harsh criticism affects him and, in 1934, suffering from rheumatism, he is threatened with paralysis. Many of his works were destroyed in a fire in 1937 (over 100 works).

He died on March 26, 1946, suffering and forgotten, in Bucharest.

“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.