Abstract
The Circular Order no. 9400 / June 23, 1917, signed by General Constantin Prezan, the Chief of the General Staff of the Army, establishes the detachment of the mobilized artists. The Order stipulated the conditions provided to the plastic artists in order to carry out the “artistic mission”, as well as the destination of the works: All the works they will conceive and execute shall be the full ownership of the state, and the artists shall give up any reward for the work done. The same document provided the name and military rank of artists attached to the General Staff of the Army as war correspondents. Thus, it can be seen that 35 artists, 25 painters and 10 sculptors, have been summoned and entrusted with this noble mission. They have been working in the Academy of Fine Arts building in Iasi (the former Mihailene Academy). The group included the painters Dimitrie Stoica, St. Dimitrescu, Camil Ressu, Ion Theodorescu-Sion, Aurel Băieşu, C. Petrescu-Dragoe, Remus Troteanu, Petre Bulgaras, N. Dărăscu, Otto Briese, and the sculptors: Ion Jalea, Corneliu Medrea, Oscar Han, Dimitrie Mătăoanu, Richard Hette, Ion Mateescu and others. Their artistic production is represented in the January 24, 1918 Painting and Sculpture Exhibition of the artists mobilized by the General Staff. Many of these works can still be seen today in the collection of the National Military Museum in Bucharest, along with many other works performed by these artists after the end of the war but under the influence of the feelings of those historical moments. The exhibition of the mobilized artists was, with certainty, the starting point of a new artistic movement to be promoted by the Arta Română Society.