fact, facilitated by his brother Nicolae. He had been attending Junimea evenings since 1888. He was an intimate of the artistic circles of the time, which included George Demetrescu Mirea, Ioan Georgescu and Ion Mincu. The three had just arrived from Paris and together with Duiliu Zamfirescu, Barbu Delavrancea and Alexandru Vlahuță founded the Intimal Club Literary Artistic Circle. Bucharest School of Fine Arts As provided by the school regulations, after finishing high school, Gheorghe Petrașcu passed the baccalaureate exam in Bucharest. After graduation, he did not take into account the advice he received regarding his academic career. As a result, he was enrolled in the Faculty of Natural Sciences. In 1893, when he was a second-year student, he was enrolled at the School of Fine Arts in Bucharest and for a time attended the courses of both higher education institutions. Eventually he gave up the natural sciences to devote himself to the fine arts. As it is known, in 1893, when he entered Belle-Arte as a student, the school was going through a period of great convulsions. Theodor Aman had died in 1891, Gheorghe Tattarescu had retired in 1892 and Constantin Stăncescu had come to lead the institution, even though he had Nicolae Grigorescu as his opponent. At that time, the school principal directed the entire artistic life of Bucharest. He was the one who organized the Exhibitions of living artists and in 1894 he irritated all the artists, who complained to Minister Take Ionescu. However, he was the one listened to by the authorities, which is why in 1896 the Romanian secession in the visual arts took place after the model of similar events in Western Europe. The secessionists had in front of them Ștefan Luchian who had the endorsement of Nicolae Grigorescu. They launched a fulminating manifesto revealing the idea of emancipating artists under the tutelage of official art. The students of the School of Fine Arts were also part of the rebels, as evidenced by the report that Stăncescu made to the ministry. Gheorghe Petrașcu was also mentioned together with A.C. Satmari, Pan Ioanid, Theodor Vidalis and many others. The director's retaliation did not take long to appear, and he decided to suppress "... the rewards — medals or mentions — which they obtained at the last competition held in December 1895". Petrașcu's 3rd class bronze medal was withdrawn from the Perspective competition. In this way,