Dumitru Mățăoanu (1888 – 1929) – Statuieta din bronz „Cap de Copil”

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Dumitru Mățăoanu was born in Câmpulung. Dumitru attended primary school and high school in Câmpulung-Muscel, where he was noticed by the drawing teacher and sculptor Dimitrie D. Mirea, who guided him in the art of modeling. On Mirea's advice, Dumitru Mățăoanu enrolled at the School of Fine Arts in Bucharest, which he attended between 1904-1909, with the sculptor Dimitrie Paciurea as his teacher. During these years, she was awarded 14 medals for her work and, in recognition of her value, the Romanian Women's Society, through its president, Sofia Andreescu, and secretary Elena Al. Mușatescu awarded him a scholarship in Paris, at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts (National School of Fine Arts), sculpture department, where he passed the sixth entrance exam out of 300 competitors. He studied for 4 years in Paris, having as teachers the sculptors Marius Jean Antonin Mercié and Ernest Henri Dubois. In an interview published in the weekly "Clipa" on November 7, 1926, Dumitru Mățăoanu stated that he learned from Ernest Henri Dubois "to mount statues of large proportions in five special methods." At the age of 25 and after eight years of university studies in sculpture (1905-1913) he returned to Romania where he was appointed professor of sculpture at the School of Fine Arts in Bucharest. Shortly afterwards, he opened a workshop in Griviței Street no. 22, which soon became "a true school of sculpture of those years." He exhibited every year at the Artistic Youth, and in 196 at the Official Exhibition of Living Artists, where he was noted for his portraiture, both busts and reliefs. In the First World War he was mobilized near the General Headquarters of the Army, along with other artists, including the sculptor Ion Jalea, the painter D. Stoica, and was sent to the front, among officers and soldiers, where he made numerous sketches and sketches. . In 1918 he participated in the contest for the Monument of the Railway Heroes from 1916-1919. The model he proposed was exhibited at the Exhibition at the Romanian Athenaeum, along with six other competitors. The winner of the contest was Cornel Medrea, who also made the monument near Bucharest North Railway Station. In 1920, together with the architects C. Iotu and Arghir Culina, he created the Funerary Monument of Aurel Vlaicu, in the Bellu Militar Cemetery. In 1922, he was part of the team of sculptors, led by Dimitrie Paciurea, who decorated the Triumphal Arch in Bucharest, designed by architect Petre Antonescu. His decorative works from the Arc de Triomphe made in 1922 were no longer used for the final restoration of the Arc de Triomphe, in 1935-1936. In 1923, he opened his first personal exhibition at the Romanian Athenaeum, where he exhibited 54 works, mostly in Carrara marble, representing bas-relief portraits, busts, decorative works, but also some monumental statues, including the Romanian Soldier, tall 5.5 m, which was to be placed at the base of the Arc de Triomphe and the Heroine of Jiu, a monument in memory of the heroine Ecaterina Teodoroiu, which was later erected in the city of Slatina. He also exhibited monumental projects, such as the Union Monument in Alba Iulia, which was not made, due to lack of money, although the contest was organized by the Ministry of Cults and Arts, the Heroes Monument in Balilesti-Muscel, the Heroes Monument in Alexandria.