Gabrovo, 1847. 

The town dignitaries, with Vassil Aprilov in the lead (Vassil Aprilov was a prominent figure in business, education, a writer and patron), came to the church yard of the Holy Trinity to raise money for a new building for the first secular school in the country. Vassil Aprilov gave 2,500 groshes but did not live to see the school built – he died that same year of tuberculosis in Galatz.

Dozens of years later, artist Tsanko Lavrenov was commissioned an oil painting. The work has a really long title – Gabrovo 1847 – the first educationists’ meeting in Bulgaria, called by Vassil Aprilov, at which a decision was made to build the first secondary school in Bulgaria. It was commissioned in the 1960s by a factory in Plovdiv – Podem. And so a masterpiece was born capturing a memorable event – with Revival-time houses in the background, in the deep shade of the church yard, enlightened men deliberate over the future betterment of the young.

“It was a scene, chosen by my grandfather to immortalize Gabrovo and its history – Gabrovo 1847 – the first educationists’ meeting in Bulgaria, called by Vassil Aprilov, at which a decision was made to build the first secondary school in Bulgaria,” says the artist’s grandson Lavren Petrov. “This magnificent painting, against the backdrop of old Garbovo and the river, can now only be seen on an old photograph of dubious quality, though we have the preparatory sketch. Of course, a sketch is very different from the painting itself. The picture was commissioned in 1966 and was completed two years later; in 1969 the people of Gabrovo were so impressed and thankful for what Tsanko Lavrenov had done, that they made him honorary citizen of Grabrovo.”

The preparatory pencil drawing is on the same scale as the oil painting and is currently on display at the Plume literary club at the National Palace of Culture in Sofia. But it is the only trace left of the magnificent work by Tsanko Lavrenov. After hanging on the wall of the waiting room at Podem, the painting mysteriously vanished as soon as the factory was privatized. As it happens, this is not a one-time occurrence – the same fate befell another one hundred works, yet there are no men in uniform hunting for them. Perhaps that was the reason why it was the National Palace of Culture and the Tsanko Lavrenov Foundation that undertook to track it down – with the proviso that theirs is not a criminal but an art investigation. One more reason why they decided on doing something that is to some extent naïve, the thief being hardly likely to repent, is the 120th birth anniversary of the artist. To mark it, the Sofia City Art Gallery is mounting an unprecedented exhibition of works by Tsanko Lavrenov, that have never been seen before; a team of art experts is currently compiling 400 pages – “the difficult story of Tsanko Lavrenov and his work,” as Lavren Petrov puts it.

“It was really exciting to be tracking down and studying paintings I never thought I would ever be able to get to. For example – a splendid painting of Rila Monastery at the Faculty of Theology at the University of Sofia. We also managed to discover works in private collections, never accessible before. One of my most emotional moments was at a chapel in Plovdiv, where we found a copy of the miracle-working icon of St. George from Zograf monastery on Mount Athos. My grandfather painted it in 1935 in Mount Athos and brought it to Plovdiv on commission by the monastery. Even now as we search for the missing painting, so many different stories and facts are revealed to us. So, our own story is sure to remain incomplete, not that that in itself is a bad thing.”

Tsanko Lavrenov was born in 1896 in Plovdiv. Though he did not have a formal education in art, he asserted himself as one of the foremost painters of his time. He has created outstanding landscapes from his home town as well as drawings of monasteries, especially in Mount Athos. His works have been on display in Prague, Budapest, Warsaw, West Berlin, Moscow. He also excelled as an art critic. Tsanko Lavrenov died in Sofia in 1978.

English version: Milena Daynova