Danube Guard (Santinela) by Nicolae Grigorescu (1838-1907) was executed during the Russian-Turkish war of 1877-78, the year Romania obtained its independence from the Ottoman Empire, after 400 years of occupation.
Romanian troops fought alongside the Russians and Grigorescu accompanied the troops as an artist-reporter, making hundreds of sketches along the way that he later used as the basis of a series of oil paintings, including Danube Guard.
A portrait of a Young Girl (Cap de Copil) by Nicolae Tonitza (1886-1940) is also estimated at US$20,000- 30,000. Tonitza was greatly inspired by Post-Impressionism and Expressionist art, and was responsible for infusing new life
into the Romanian art scene at the beginning of the 20th century. He greatly enjoyed painting children – his own as well as those of his friends and relatives - and following them from a very young age through different stages of maturity.
Both paintings were once in the collection of Roy Melbourne who was political attaché to the American Embassy in Bucharest, 1946-48.
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