DIMITRIE BEREA (1908-1975). Berea was most inspired by Pierre Bonnard. His works command excellent prices and there is a book about him as well. There is also a Berea site on the net with many examples of his paintings. We have a wonderful Mid Century Seascape with Boats on Lake Geneva, Lausanne, Switzerland, painted in 1961, 26" x 32" is the approximate painting size (approximate framed size: 38" x 43") signed/titled/dated lower right: Berea Ouchy 61. The Title of "Ouchy" is Lausanne, Switzerland on Lake Geneva and the date is 1961. We found one slightly larger painting, a 29" x 39" oil (41" x 47" framed size) with an asking price of $24,000. See photographs 11 and 12 as comparison. We are also showing a couple other of his seascapes with his vivid blues that he likes to use as photographs 13 and 14. Because the frame is very large and it will pack up much larger shipping it in the frame is $400.00. If you don't want the frame we can discard it and ship the painting only for $50.00. We ship federal express and signature will be required because the painting is an expensive work of art.
Born to an upper middle class family in Bacau, Romania, Dimitrie Berea became an artist who would later be known by some persons as painter to the aristocratic and royal families of Europe and the art world of France and America. His father was a lawyer-politician, and his mother was a painter trained at the French Ecole des Beaux Arts. Many parents would consider art a less than suitable career choice, but Dimitrie's maternal family had been involved in the arts for a number of generations.
So at the age of nineteen, Dimitrie entered the Academy of Architecture, in Bucharest where he spent the next five years. While in the Academy, he and his master teacher, Theodorescu-Sion and a student friend, founded a non-conformist painting academy called "ILEANA". This academy/school served progressive young artists. During the 1930s he became a rising young Romanian painter.
In 1937, the Italian government invited him to come to Rome and enroll "with compensation" at the Royal Academy of Fine Art to study painting, decoration, sculpture, scene-painting and engraving. The following year the Romanian government paid his expenses at the Roman Academy. Meanwhile he exhibited in various invitational exhibitions, hung one-person shows in private galleries in Romania and Italy and also traveled to Paris.
In Paris (1939) he was an habitué of Marie Fontaine-Desjardins' salon where he met the latter day Impressionists Bonnard and Vuillard and the Fauve artists Matisse and Van Dongen. Dimitrie Berea would later consider himself a pupil of Bonnard, or perhaps better, in sympathy with Bonnard's painting style, paint application and color choices. In 1942 at the age of thirty-four, Berea received a diploma in each of the five branches of art he studied while at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Rome.
During the late summer of 1942, Berea hung a one-person show at the Palazzo Lancellotto, Rome, where the book Berea, written by poet and art historian Mario Rivosecchi, was available to the exhibition audience. Giuseppe Galassi, Antonio Petrucci and S. A. Luciani wrote a text about Berea for his exhibition at Kretzulescu Gallery's Caminul Artei, Bucharest (1944); and still another book, this time written by Andre Warnod and also titled Berea was published in 1949. Here Warnod called Berea "a new apostle of the Paris School".
Concurrent with a 1951 exhibition of Venetian Landscapes (Galeria Cavalino, Venice) Berea wrote and published his Venice Manifesto, which was later translated into Catalan and English. Biographical time lines, lists citing collectors and museums and quotes from various personalities and literati were published throughout his career in exhibition catalogs.
During the 1950s, Dimitre Berea became a French citizen and an active lecturer. These lectures were frequently associated with theme based exhibitions; for example he spoke formally about his "Profession of Faith", "The work of art in its proper setting, "Atmosphere and climate", "Art confronted by the abstract" and "The creative phenomenon". His text and lecture concerning the Venice Manifesto was hotly contested in a number of different settings.
By the 1960s Berea was a frequent visitor to New York City, Miami, Palm Beach, San Francisco and Hollywood, and at the same time had apartments in New York City, Paris and San Francisco.
His first exhibition (1961) in the United States was at the Aquavella Gallery, in New York City. Berea continued to be a landscape painter of "proper settings" while in the United States, but he also became a painter to the Hollywood community. Throughout his career he had accepted commissions as a portrait painter, but in this decade he received numerous commissions as painter to Hollywood movie stars.
Berea met and married a California socialite after his very successful retrospective at the De Young Museum in San Francisco. However, this marriage ended in divorce. In 1972, after having known her for three years, Berea married Princess Alice Gurielli. She had fled Europe after her family estates and property had been confiscated by the Communist government and had been imprisoned in utter privation for three years under Stalin. Her grandfather had been King of Georgia. She, a Romanian refugee (1966) sponsored by the Orthodox Church, drove a taxi in New York City, lived in Harlem, and worked as a charwoman for numerous Romanian families in the New York metropolitan area. Princess Alice brought to the marriage good looks, charm, cultured sophistication and good business sense.
Dimitrie Berea was a "typical artist". He wore his heart on his sleeve, was a romantic, was religious, loved people-especially beautiful women, lived his life to paint, and had his head in the stars while his feet never touched the ground. He was an incompetent money manager and seemed always to be in debt. When Princess Alice married him on May 25, 1972, she essentially served as a manager of his talents, both painting and money.
Princess Alice described the marriage as "an unbelievably chaotic adventure". Their bliss was cut short by Dimitrie's death to colon cancer January 14, 1975 in Paris. After a Latin mass at the Madeleine he was interred in Paris' Père Lachaise Cemetery. Dimitrie's remaining art works became the property of Princess Alice after a contested will. Many works were sold, but the remaining oil paintings and all the drawings, watercolors and prints are to be given to Berea College. Sources: Askart; ROGallery.
1908 Dimitrie Berea was born in Bacau, Romania on November 2. His mother a painter, his father, a lawyer.
1927-1932 Student at the Academy of Architecture, Bucharest.
1930 In Bucharest, together with Theodorescu-Sion, his then master, founded on the earliest academies of nonconformist painting, "Ileana."
1932 Show at the Academy of Architecture's annual art exhibition, Bucharest.
1934 The Prize of Bucharest's official Salon, where his works have hung regularly since 1928, is awarded to his portrait of Mlle. L.S. First one-man show at Bucharest's Dalles Gallery.
1936 One-man show at Lapusneanu Galleries in Jassy, the Moldave Country's chief town, and at Casino Galleries in the great Romanian harbor Constantza, inaugurated by Queen Mary of Romania.
1937 Leaves on invitation for Rome, with a special bursary from the Italian government. Studies at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts.
1938 Prix de Rome. Exhibition at the Romanian Academy of Prix de Rome.
1939 Decisive meeting with Marie Fontaine-Desjardins, chief muse of the Impressionists. In dedicating to her his first postwar exhibition at the Galerie Allard in Paris, Berea pays grateful homage to the Egeria with whom and through whom he has known Matisse, Van Dongen, Andre' Lhote and above all Bonnard, who he considers his real master.
1940 Exhibition in Rome at the Galeria delle Belle Arte inaugurated by King Vittorio Emmanuelle III.
1941 Exhibition at Milan, Galeria del Duomo, opened by the Minister of Fine Arts.
1942 Receives diploma from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Rome. Important one-man exhibition in Rome at the Palazzo Lancellotto opened by the minister of National Education.
1943 Returns to Bucharest as successful candidate for appointments as director and curator of the Aman Museum.
1944 Exhibition at the Kretzulescu Gallery's Caminul Artei.
1946 Returns to Paris for the exhibition dedicated to Marie Fontaine-Desjardins at the Galerie Allard.
1947 Exhibitions at the Athenee, Geneva and at Chichio Haller's, Zurich. Meeting with Leon-Paul Fargues, Lucien Fabre, Alain Bedel and Gerard Bauer of whom the artist paints well-known portraits, as one of the literary Tout --- Paris.
1948 Exhibitions held at Galerie Bernheim-Jeune, round the portrait of Leon-Paul Fargues: "Visages de Paris"; Galerie Lanmark, "Montmartre Landscapes"; and Fine Arts Gallery of Geneva.
1949 At another exhibition at Bernheim-Jeune, Paris, Andre Warnod presents his book Berea.
1950 Shows portraits at Herve's, Butte de Monmarte. Roland Dorgeles speaks of Berea as one of the first portraitists of our time, beside Kisling and Dongen. Exhibition at the Andre Weil Gallery, Paris.
1951 Exhibitions-M.M.J.H. Bernheim-Jeune, Paris and Galeria Cavalino, Venice by Cardazzo- later called "Venice Manifesto," which will be a book under the same title, prefaced y Maximilien Gauthier. At the exhibition "Landscapes of Venice," Galerie d'Arte Hispanique, Paris, the artist presents and signs the first edition of the "Venice Manifesto."
1952 Exhibition at the Circolo de las Bellas Artes, Madrid. Also an exhibition at the Galerias Layetanas, Barcelona, where the "Venice Manifesto," translated into Catalan, is discussed with ardor and violence at the celebrated cenacle Los Trascaccios. At the Galerie Bernheim-Jeune, an exhibition "Bonnard, Vuillard, Berea," allows Berea to view his works side by side with those of his masters.
1953 Invited by the British Government, Berea shows canvasses inspired by London decorated for the Coronation at Tooth & Son, London.
1954 At the O'Hana Gallery, London, an exhibition, "Visions de France et d'Angleterre," is opened by the Duchess of Kent. Berea meets Winston Churchill at 10 Downing Street, a political group having given the Premier one of his major works for an 80th birthday present. Exhibitions at Casino Gallery, Vichy and at the Edinburgh Festival, Whystock & Reid's.
1955 Exhibitions at Moulins Museum and at Cannes, with Matisse and Picasso, Gallery 65.
1956 Exhibitions at M.M.J.H. Bernheim-Jeune as part of "Hommage a Bonnard" and Rohr Volmar's Galerie des Remparts, Venice and Paris.
1957 "Vernissage Author d'un portrait," at Hannah Becker von Rath's Kunstkabinet, Frankfurt/Main preceded by a lecture by the artist: "Art confronted by the abstract and the creative phenomenon."
1958 Meets Picasso at Cannes. Show at the Galerie du Belier --"Berea in the land of Picasso" with a lecture by the artist on the faux-pas in art. The Grand Prix Salondu Portrait is awarded by a jury of notables and art critics to Berea.
1959 The decorator, Chaurand, at Cannes, presents Berea canvasses on the theme "The work of art in its proper setting, creates atmosphere and climate."
1960 Recent works show at Domenico's, Cannes. "A Hundred Pictures by Berea," at M.M.J.H. Bernheim-Jeune, marked by a commemorative booklet with a reproduction in facsimile of a handwritten "profession of faith" by the artist. Official meeting with the Prince and Princess of Monaco in Berne. The occasion is the ceremony at which Prince Rainer presents the President acquired by the Principality.
1961 Invited to exhibit at Monte-Carlo, Galerie Rauch. Berea receives the Grand-Prix, hors concours, of the International Salon of Modern Art, Paris. Exhibition at Acquavella Gallery, New York.
1963 Double exhibition --- Paris and London. Recent works. Seven pictures of London during the Coronation, a gift from Berea to the nation, are placed on exhibition at Guildhall.
1964 Inauguration of his great mural: "Hommage a Paris" triptych which represents the monumental symbols of the "Paris Universal Exhibitions": Eiffel Tower, Alexander IIIrd Bridge and the Grand Palais at the Club of The Top of the Fair, New York.
1965 Exhibition at the DeYoung Museum, San Francisco.
1966 Exhibition Gilbert Gallery, San Francisco.
1967 Exhibition Palm Beach Gallery, Palm Beach.
1973 Exhibition Poinciana Gallery, Palm Beach and Service Culturel -- Ambassade de France, New York. Major exhibition at The Eric Galleries, New York.
1975 Dimitrie Berea dies in Paris of Cancer.
1990 Retrospective Exhibition of the Berea collection at Phillips Fine Art Auctioneers, New York.
1991 Major Museum Retrospective at the Musee de Villefranche, France. Exhibition of selected works from 1941 to 1970, Ergane Gallery, New York

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