and mapping out a radical land reform. During the general election of 1899, he ran for a deputy seat in both Olt and Ilfov, without registering success. There was confusion as to Bogdan-Pitești's political affiliation. He was known as "the peasants' candidate", but both sides of the Romanian two-party system, the National Liberal Party and the Conservative group, accused the other of secretly supporting his bid. During such campaigns, he is said to have misled his voters into believing that he was a son of the deposed Domnitor Alexandru Ioan Cuza, and therefore a natural champion of land reform. His activity in Olt is credited with having sparked some violent incidents: in at least one account, he instigated the peasants of Slatina area to riot, and their revolt was only suppressed with use of force. Others however claim that the Romanian Land Forces randomly shot at, then charged upon, the peaceful mass of demonstrators, killing at least 35 of them. The Slatina crisis reverberated in the capital and posed problems for the Conservative cabinet of Gheorghe Grigore Cantacuzino. Reportedly, both the Minister of Agriculture Nicolae Fleva and the Minister of Justice Dissescu were ready to hand in their resignations. Bogdan-Pitești himself was arrested for sedition, but soon after checked himself into Filantropia Hospital. He averted sentencing when the prosecutors were unable to conclusively prove this involvement. Overall, Bogdan-Pitești claimed to have been held in judicial custody for some forty separate incidents, stressing that all these convictions were owed to political crimes—while reporting this statement, T. Vianu noted that at least some should in fact be considered punishments for various misdemeanors. In time, the anarchist boyar had also come to be known as an inveterate criminal and jailbird, which attracted him the disparaging moniker Bogdan-Văcărești (after Văcărești prison in Bucharest). Others twisted his birth name into the parodic Bogdan-Ciupești (from a ciupi, "to gyp"). Bogdan-Pitești consolidated his own estate when he inherited a manor in Vlaici village (part of Colonești). It was, beginning in 1908, the center of his activities and home to his sizable art collection, as well as one of the first locations in Romania acting as a summer camp for painters and sculptors. The events he planned were attended by the Ileana regulars, and, in time, attracted virtually all other major en plein air painters of the day: Nicolae Dărăscu, Ștefan Dimitrescu, Iosif Iser, M. H. Maxy, Theodor