“He was a friend unlike anyone I had ever known”

In 1959, when I married Spiru Vergulescu – he, a student at the Institute of Fine Arts in Bucharest, and I, a student at the “Ciprian Porumbescu” Music Conservatory – I met Ileana Mironescu and Maria Mironescu, the daughter and wife of Alexandru Codin Mironescu, respectively.

I met Alexandru Mironescu and his son Șerban much later, when they were released from prison.

I don’t remember whether our first meeting with Alexandru Mironescu was before or after the Christmas holidays of 1963, and whether it took place in our house on Palace Square or in his house on Vasile Lascăr Street. But I still remember the joy of discovering a very special man and the beginning of a lasting friendship with him.

When I met him, my husband told me that Alexandru Mironescu was a handsome man, tall and with a rare distinction, and I personally noticed even then that he knew how to listen to you with attention and patience, and when he spoke, he captivated you with his lively intelligence, the finesse of his remarks and his particularly broad culture.

We were not the only ones who liked Alex. Mironescu, he liked us too. And so began the exchange of visits between him and us. He came to see us often, always accompanied by Mrs Maria Mironescu, to the delight of both of us, especially her and myself. They were nonconformists as far as the unwritten rules of a visit were concerned; whenever they remembered us and went out for a walk, we woke up with them, at different times. It happened once that they came to us in the evening, after Spiru had returned from the workshop, bathed and dressed in a Turkish robe that he had designed and sewn the day before in his own personal style. When Alexandru Mironescu saw Spiru dressed in this way, his reaction was absolutely surprising to me: he expressed his sincere admiration for Spiru’s talent as a fashion designer.

It was a pleasure for us to have him visit, but also an opportunity to broaden our cultural horizons. Sometimes Alexandru Mironescu would read to us from his own writings, sometimes he would talk to us about important figures in Romanian culture whom he had known or befriended. In this way we learned a lot about Sandu Tudor, Vasile Voiculescu, Panait Istrati, Father Benedict, Father Sofian, Father Valeriu Anania, Serban Cioculescu, the architect C. Joja, Ion Biberi, Paul Constantinescu, Aurel Stroe and many others. I must also add that although we, Spiru and I, were the same age as Ilena and Șerban, Alex. Mironescu did not treat us as youngsters, but as people of his age, and our conversations with him were conducted without reserve, in the most natural and friendly way.

Al. Mironescu admired Spiru’s painting and every time he came to see us he wanted to see his latest paintings. He had faith in Spiru’s talent as a painter and confessed to us that he was convinced that he would make a good name for himself in the history of Romanian art. He also admired Spiru for his other talents: his talent as a draughtsman, his talent as a fashion designer, his talent as a storyteller. In particular, he was amazed at how Spiru, without having learnt the tailoring trade, managed to sew for himself and for me clothes of an original cut, designs that were entirely his own imagination.

At the same time, Al. Mironescu approved of Spiru’s particular dress and told us that an artist must stand out from the crowd, both in his clothes and in his hairstyle, in everything that could have made him stand out. And to support this idea, he gave us examples of artists from recent art history. Al. Mironescu also told us that an artist cannot create by living in a banal environment, but only in a very personal one that reflects him, as we timidly tried to do, using his house as a model, which had an interior of an originality and charm rarely found in Bucharest.

Come to us often, Alex. Mironescu and his wife also took part in our meetings with other friends, and he always knew how to make himself close and appreciated by everyone. He was also the first to come to the openings of Spiru’s painting exhibitions and to the famous exhibition organised every year on the 10th of January in our house. And in all these meetings he always showed great intellectual availability.

When we returned from his visits, he welcomed us with open arms and treated us with the love and natural simplicity of friendship. We would almost always find him surrounded by guests with whom he would talk in an atmosphere of calm and understanding.

He was a friend like no other I had ever known.

Since he left us forever one winter’s day and was laid to rest in his family grave in Bellu cemetery, he has left a void in my life that I still feel today.

(Gunka Vergulescu – Alexandru Mironescu. Centenary of his birth 1903-2003, edited by Ileanea Mironescu, Enciclopedica Publishing House, Bucharest, 2003, pp. 142-144)