Anastase Demian

Anastase Demian (25 May 1899 – 5 September 1977) was a Romanian painter, illustrator, and university professor.

Early life and education Anastase Demian was born on 25 May 1899 in Budapest. His father, either named Dumitru or Anastasie Demian, His family relocated to Arad in 1905, and then to Timișoara in 1909.

Career Though based in France until 1925, Demian contributed art and illustrations to a number of Romanian publications, including the Cluj-based literary-cultural magazines Gândirea and Erdélyi Helikon, and the Timișoara-based Vremea and Luceafărul. In Hungarian-language publications, he was credited as Tassy Demian (in Hungarian naming order, Demian Tassy).

Demian returned to Romania in 1925, working briefly at the Centrul Artistic Baia Mare (Baia Mare Artistic Centre) before beginning work as a professor of decorative arts at the Școală de Arte Frumoase (School of Fine Arts) in Cluj; he occupied this professorship from 1926 to 1930. He was later commissioned to paint the Romanian pavilion for the 1939 New York World's Fair. In 1939 he was commissioned by Minister of Arts and Culture Nicolae Zigre to supervise the painting of frescoes at the Timișoara Metropolitan Cathedral. He also led the painting of frescoes at the Dormition of the Theotokos Cathedral in Cluj, alongside Catul Bogdan, Sighișoara's Holy Trinity Church, a church in Brașov, and the Stella Maris chapel in Balcic (today in Dobrich, Bulgaria).

He continued to provide illustrations to magazines and newspapers throughout the 1930s and World War II, including to the culturally-pluralist journal Boabe de grâu, and to Lucian Blaga's philosophical journal, Saeculum.

After World War II, Demian continued to contribute illustrations to books (especially children's literature and volumes of poetry), including a translation of the Nibelungenlied by Adrian Maniu, and an illustrated edition of Vasile Alecsandri's Poezii populare ale românilor ("Popular poetry of the Romanians"), and volumes of work by Lucian Blaga, Emil Isac, Octavian Breazu, Sabin Drăgoi, Mihail Sadoveanu, Ion Creangă, and Radu Boureanu.

Demian died on 5 September 1977 in Baia Mare, at the age of 78.

Selected illustrated works

Nichifor Crainic and Cezar Petrescu (eds.), Gândirea (1921–1944) Lucian Blaga, Tulburea apelor (Cluj: Editura Institutului de arte grafice Ardealul, 1923) Emil Isac, Poeme în proză (Oradea-Mare: Tip. Lit. Rom. S.A., 1923) G. Breazul and Sabin V. Dragoi (series editors), Carte de cântece... (Craiova: Editura Scrisul românesc, 1932–1938) Emanoil Bucuța (ed.), Boabe de grâu (1930–1934) Nichifor Crainic (ed.), Sfarmă-Piatră (1935–1940) N. Oanea and I.U. Soricu (eds.), Carte de cântece pentru clasele I și II primara (Bucharest: Editura Librăriei Pavel Suru, 1936) Radu Boureanu, Satul fără dragoste (Bucharest: Editura de stat pentru literatură și artă, 1955) Profira Sadoveanu, Balaurul alb (Bucharest: Editura Tineretului, 1955) Cristina Petrescu, Izvorul ințelepciunii (Bucharest: Editura Tineretului, 1957) Adrian Maniu, Cîntecul Nibelungilor (Bucharest: Editura de stat pentru literatură și artă, 1958) Ion Creangă, Amintiri din copilărie și povestea lui Harap Alb (Bucharest: Editura pentru literatură, 1962) A.S. Pușkin, Basme (Bucharest: Editura pentru literatura universală, 1962) Vasile Alecsandri, Poezii populare ale românilor (Bucharest: Editura pentru literatură, 1966)