Margareta Sterian

b. 1897 — d. 1992

Margareta Sterian was an important Romanian painter, writer and translator. Born in a Jewish family, she was first married to a banker; second time she was married to the poet Paul Sterian. She attended the painting lessons of Richard Canisius, then, later, of Gore Mircescu. In 1926-29, she studies at Paris. In December 1929-January 1930, she holds her first exhibition at the Mozart Gallery, Bucharest, containing portraits, landscapes and still lives. She is often associated with the Criterion generation, as she had, for instance, a contact with Mircea Eliade. Her first poetry book appears in 1945. New books are released and new exhibitions are held only beginning with the 1960s, after the period in which socialist realism is imposed in Romania. Her artist reputation increases exponentially after her death, as, since 1993, the Margareta Sterian Foundation has prepared numerous retrospective exhibitions, published albums with her paintings and reissued some of her books. Today, her works have prices among the highest paid for a Romanian painter, being considered by some „one of the greatest Romanian painters of the 20th century”.