Deux lettres autographes signées adressées au Préfet du département de Dolj

Two handwritten signed letters addressed to the Dolj County Prefect
Two handwritten letters signed by Constantin Brâncuși addressed to the Dolj County Prefect and written in brown and black ink, one on a piece of lined paper (14.7 x 22cm) and the other on larger size white paper (27 x 19,5 cm).

The first letter is written in ink on a leaf and bears the registration number “12981” followed by the acronym “pPG” and is signed with the artist's full name: “Constantin Brâncu”. At the bottom left of the page there is a handwritten note by Brâncuși: "I received the prescription", followed by his signature "C. Brâncu" and not "Brâncusi" or "Brâncusi", as he signed after his arrival in Paris. The second letter is written in ink on half a sheet of notebook paper and contains the same message, the same signature and a similar inventory number. A 10 bani (centimes) stamp is glued to the top left. The left side below the stamp is cut out, as Brâncuși used to do: he removed the stamps or erased information that he did not want to keep.

These two important letters document a significant chapter of the artist's biography concerning his studies financed in part by the Craiova Department.On 28 September 1898, Brâncuși successfully completed his five-year schooling at the Craiova Trade School – the capital of his native region – and enrolled at the Bucharest School of Fine Arts. He obtained scholarships from the Madonna Dudu church in Craiova, which helped him to continue his studies. He was quickly noticed by his teachers in Bucharest who awarded him prizes for making busts, such as Laocoon and the antique sculpture Study based on Mars Borghese. In October 1900, Brâncuși
sent a request for a scholarship to the Prefect of the Dolj County (the capital of which is Craiova) who helped him to follow "his studies during the October term" and specified that this scholarship was granted to him by the County Council 1900-1901 budget.