the qualities and flaws of a sincere French revolutionary, but one who is not entirely clear and scientific. He has an extraordinary love for all things independent and hates to the point of excess all sectarian people, and all schools." In June 1896, the group of "secessionists" was commissioned to decorate Bragadiru Garden, where Romania's press held its annual fair. The show, attended by Bogdan-Pitești, prominently featured Stăncescu's caricature at the entrance. Despite rhetoric, the new art club was not entirely opposed to tradition, and occasionally appealed to it as a basis for cultural reconstruction. Salonul boasted among its honorary members the lionized oil painter Nicolae Grigorescu, who had trained with the Barbizon school. Bogdan-Pitești was especially fond of Luchian's work, and, in an 1896 article for the cultural magazine Revista Orientală, spoke of him as "an admirable colorist", a "free spirit", and a purveyor of "revolutionary ideas". He boosted Luchian's self-confidence, urging him to apply his talents to illustrating "an idea", and was entirely adverse to Grigorescu's traditionalist manner. Luchian still used Grigorescu as a source of inspiration in his own work, prompting scholars to argue that Grigorescu's Salonul Independenților reception was Bogdan-Pitești's unwilling concession to his star protégé. Literatorul, Bronzes, Ileana Bogdan-Pitești was by then an inspiration for the blooming Romanian Symbolist movement. In effect, he was the first Romanian expert on the work of Symbolist celebrities like Odilon Redon, Gustave Moreau, and (his favorite) Alexandre Séon. He soon became a contributor to Literatorul, a Symbolist magazine, and was close friends with its founder, Alexandru Macedonski. In 1897, he was chosen by the latter to edit and promote his book of French-language poems, Bronzes. In the end, Bogdan-Pitești provided the funds needed for Bronzes to be published in Paris. It came out with an introductory note, in which Bogdan-Pitești favorably compared Macedonski with arch-rival Mihai Eminescu. In more general terms, the preface showed Bogdan-Pitești as an unyielding Francophile, who reported with alarm that Romania risked being seduced and then engulfed by German culture. Himself a disciple of Macedonski, T. Vianu comments that Bogdan-Pitești was probably unsuited for the task of introducing Bronzes, and that, despite expectations, the volume failed to impress the French public. He notes the virtually complete lack of press reviews—with the notable exception of a May 1898 article in Mercure de France, written by the Symbolist-anarchist Pierre Quillard. Later in 1898, back in Romania, Bogdan-Pitești