Carol Popp de Szathmári

We owe much of what we know about the Wallachian world of the 19th century to iconographic documents provided by a Transylvanian painter, photographer, war chronicler, publicist, and traveler: Carol Popp de Szathmári. One of the most prolific artists of his time, he lived in Muntenia and then in the United Principalities. His life took place between the workshop, the steamboat, the sailing ship, the newly arrived train or the mail cart with a cover, always looking for new and picturesque things, unseen or on the verge of disappearing.

He was born in Cluj in 1812, in a family of small Hungarian nobles. The subject of his ethnic origin has been elegantly avoided over time by Romanian historians, being presented either as a Transylvanian or from a family of Romanians Hungarianized sometime in the past. However, by adoption, he became a better Romanian than many others, non-existent, and a great artist of Romania, even if he received citizenship only towards the end of his life.

Shortly after graduating from the Reformed College in Cluj, he gave up the peaceful future of a church career to devote himself to art. In his youth he traveled to Bucharest, and then, in 1834, made a long study trip to Budapest, Vienna, Munich, and northern Italy. He would travel through Europe many more times in his life.

But his obvious attraction was to the Eastern world, and Bucharest was part of the Orient at the time. In addition, in Bucharest he knew that he would be able to find clients for his traditional European painting. He returned, therefore, many times to the Wallachian capital, where he eventually settled and came to enter high society, working for the Ghica, Bibescu and Cuza principles. The romantic spirit of the time stimulated his curiosity for the latest visual techniques, such as photography or chromolithography, so that he became one of the pioneers of photographic art in Europe.

He traveled repeatedly to Constantinople, twice in the official suite of Prince Alexander the Great (1860 and 1864). On one occasion he discreetly sketched his meeting with Sultan Abdul-Medjid I and was awarded a medal as a member of the Wallachian delegation. Watercolors with picturesque bazaar, street and portrait scenes have been preserved from these trips.

His fascination with the Orient was not limited to his travels in the capital of the Ottoman Empire, but carried him on to Syria and Lebanon. Historians do not know much about these raids, as the artist did not leave any documents or notes. It is known, however, that on his way east, Szathmári also settled in the villages and towns of Bulgaria, then an integral part of the empire, under the name of Rumelia. The pencil and watercolor sketches are not missing here either. In Serbia, he drew and painted portraits and costumes, as well as official paintings for the ruling Serbian family, many of which are now in museums in Belgrade. In the Crimean War, fought between the Russians and the Turks from 1853 to 1856, the first cannon salvos were fired on the Danube, and it was not until later that the conflict spread north of the Black Sea. In the early years of the conflict, Bucharest was full of tsarist officers eager to be photographed. Thus, Szathmári came to immortalize the camps and batteries of the Russians from Calafat and Oltenita, and even, crossing the Danube, the Turks.

Ernest Lacan, a forerunner of the history of photography and editor-in-chief of the French Photographic Society magazine "La Lumière", would later describe in a book about the Universal Exposition how Szathmári was under direct fire from the Turkish garrison in Oltenita. "It was obvious to the artist that he had the honor of being the target himself and that gunfire was becoming more precise and threatening. But the setting was so interesting, the light and shadows so fitting that it was impossible for him to decide to leave. Plus he only had a few seconds left. Wait until everything was ready. It was time to leave. A third bullet, better aimed, sank into the ground at his feet, covering it with sand. But the picture turned out great! ” Photographs of the Danube front in 1854 are static. The long exposure time (due to the low sensitivity of the emulsion on the glass plates) did not allow snapshots to be taken. But through them Szathmári became the world's first war photographer, little known in the world. With 200 of these photographs, Szathmári made an album in several copies, which he offers to the crowned heads of the countries directly or indirectly involved in the conflict. He was personally received by, among others, Queen Victoria of Great Britain, Emperor Franz Joseph, Napoleon III, Sultan and King Victor Emmanuel II of Sardinia. In some cases, the hearings lasted for hours - writes his biographer Adrian Silvian Ionescu - because the monarchs were extremely curious to see these living testimonies from the front, as well as the portraits of generals and officers. The Paris Photographic Society announced with pomp its arrival and the meeting with Napoleon III.

The irony of history is that none of the Crimean War albums survive. Only a few disparate photographs remain in the collections. That is why Szathmári's pioneering position was taken by the British Roger Fenton, who, a few months after Szathmári documented the Danube campaign, landed in Crimea and photographed the conflict there.

In 1859, Szathmári exhibited a photograph of Manuc's Inn, one of his favorite subjects, at the Paris Photographic Society, which would elect him as a member five years later. His passion for documentary and reportage was also manifested in journalism. Between 1860 and 1861 he tried his luck by publishing a newspaper based on the model of the French newspaper Illustration, called Illustration - universal journal. Complaining that he could not find good engravers in Bucharest, he quickly gave up publishing local engravings, taking over those of the French edition.

In 1860, Szathmári was commissioned to draw a detailed map of Muntenia, a necessary work, and a Romanian premiere, modeled on the drawings made by the cartographic officers of the Austrian army, obtained by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The work went slowly due to its complexity, bringing many reproaches to the artist, but it was eventually chromolithographed at a printing house in Paris, in a thousand copies, under the direct supervision of Szathmári.

Carol de Hohenzollern's coronation as ruler of the United Principalities brought new opportunities for Szathmári. The young German prince wanted to get to know his new country, so in the first years of his reign he traveled it far and wide. During his travels, he was accompanied by the painter and photographer Carol Szathmári, who meticulously recorded many details. Formed in a cultural environment of the West (Austro-Hungarian Empire), he was much more passionate about the picturesque world on the border of the East and seemingly frozen in time than the few Wallachian artists, attracted, on the contrary, by Western art and values.