Muzeul „Theodor Aman”

The Theodor Aman Museum is the house-studio of the painter Theodor Aman, one of the founding figures of modern Romanian art and the man who established organised art education in the country, the founder of the School of Fine Arts in Bucharest. Built between 1868 and 1869 to his own designs, in the second half of the 19th century, the house was conceived as a manifesto: a space where the artist lived, painted and received guests, decorated by his own hand, from the murals and painted ceilings to the engraved doors.

The visit is absorbing precisely because you can see the studio with its north light, the furniture, the murals and the surviving objects almost as they were in Aman's day. Paintings, engravings and sketches by the artist are on display, alongside personal objects that recreate the atmosphere of a creator's home from the era when the modern Romanian state was taking shape. It is a rare example of an artist's house preserved as such in central Bucharest, offering direct contact with how people lived and created at the time.

Good to know

• As a small house-museum, check the official website for opening hours, which may be limited and include weekly closing days.
• It sits in the central area, on Strada C.A. Rosetti, easy to combine with other nearby cultural attractions, from the Athenaeum to Calea Victoriei.
• Art lovers can include it on a route with the other house-museums and galleries in the central districts.

For anyone who wants to understand the roots of Romanian painting, Aman's studio is almost essential, and surprisingly uncrowded, an oasis of calm a few steps from the bustle of the centre.