Chișinău in Paiting (the 19th century – the middle part of the 20th century)

The funds of National Art Museum of Moldova, and the National Archives Agency
include rich painting collections of Chisinau landscapes. The article valorizes the paintings depicting
Chisinau from the 19th century until the mid-twentieth century. The urban landscape is one of the
few genres that served as a refuge for visual artists, being less influenced by the political regime.
The painters who had been active until the inter-war period, presented the city with the public garden
(Nikolae Ratko) and courtyard houses (Vladimir Ocușco). The inter-war period comes with an
urbanized Chișinău, being present in the works of Theodor Kiriacoff, Şneer Cogan, Grigore Fiurer,
or with rural courtyard houses in the works of Grigore Filatov, Boris Nesvedov, Vasile Blinov, etc.
The beginning of the post-war period comes with subjects of reconstruction of the city central area
that we find in the paintings of Grigore Fiurer, Rostislav Ocușco, Eugenia Gamburd, etc., or with
the sights of peripheral areas that remained unchanged in the works of Alexei Vasiliev, Alexandru
Climașevschi, Boris Nesvedov, etc. The importance of this study comes from the possibility to study
the evolution of Chișinău city’s aspect, which has diversified according to political, economic and
social factors. These urban landscapes keep in the collective memory the former Chișinău, images
that can last forever, and complete the atmosphere of time.