“Gabriel Popescu” Engraver Workshop-House

Gabriel Popescu was a famous engraver, born in Dâmbovița county. He had a remarkable talent for drawing, so he obtained a scholarship to Paris to study painting, but enrolled in engraving courses. He stayed in the French capital for six years and then returned to Romania, where he continued to practice. The house in the village of Vulcana Pandele was built according to his plans between 1902 and 1905. Here the engraver lived with his wife Marthe, whom he met in Paris.

The museum “Casa-Atelier Gravor Gabriel Popescu” is located on the two floors of the house. The ground floor is distinguished by the house’s kitchen – a blend of traditional and modern, with mosaics in the central part and a stone basin linked to the fountain. The two floors are connected by a circular wooden staircase, and upstairs is the workshop with a window in the ceiling and the artist’s bedroom. At that time, it was a special thing for both the artist and the common villagers to have a workshop right in their own home. Here you can see the wooden press, created from sketches of pieces seen in Paris, the stove created especially to dry the works and even the portrait of Gabriel Popescu’s mother-in-law in engraving.