Alexis and his wife Solaro helped decorate the poet's salon in the Bucharest neighborhood of Dorobanți, using a performative lavishness that was meant to clash with their material destitution.

The father–son collaboration, which also saw them founding a larger "Idealists' Circle" of artists, was only interrupted during the second half of World War I: while Macedonski Sr preferred to remain in occupied territory and give a measure of support to the Central Powers, Alexis continued to fight alongside the Romanian Land Forces in besieged Western Moldavia, and was recognized by the loyalist authorities as an official war artist.

Involved in a legal conflict with his mother, Alexis quit Romania for good, and established a new Macedonski branch upon marrying his French student, Simonne Friant.

Alexis was cut off from Romania, which was taken over by a communist regime, though he maintained friendly contacts with some in the anti-communist Romanian diaspora, including the poet-diplomat Aron Cotruș.

Their exact ethnic background is disputed, with most theories converging on their identification as Serbs; conflicting hypotheses (described by literary historian Adrian Marino as fringe) see them as Bulgarian or Aromanian.

[4] Alexis' paternal grandfather, also named Alexandru, was a general in the military forces of the United Principalities; his wife, Maria Fisența, had been adopted into Wallachian boyardom, and owned estates in Oltenia.

[5] Alexis was the eldest of five surviving children from Alexandru Jr's marriage to Ana Rallet Slătineanu, who was from an "extremely wealthy" family[6] (the poet's oldest son, George, had died in infancy).

[12] Their sister, Ana "Nina" (1897–1958),[12] was not involved in literary life other than as the wife of poet Mihail Celarianu (having previously been the fiancee of another author, Oreste Georgescu).

[22] A chronicle in La Patria newspaper reserved praise for his religious art (including a "grandiose and deeply saddening" Crucifixion of Christ) and his genre painting (such as his depiction of Florentine prostitutes).

[3] A disciple of Alexandru Macedonski, the poet Donar Munteanu, believes that the son and father were together on the extended trip to Italy: after having two of his paintings purchased by Anastase Simu, Alexis had also received a scholarship from the Romanian Ministry of Education; he then "grew accustomed" to the Italian life.

"[24] Sperantia suggests that, while not great, the illustration also attested to Alexis' skill and imagination;[14] writer and jurist Alexandru Bilciurescu, who was acquainted with Macedonski Sr, sees it as fitting for the narrative.

[32] Alexis was then featured with his "Paradise Lost" at the Bucharest Official Salon in June—the work was panned by Flacăra magazine as "feeble", "lacking all seriousness",[33] but was well-liked by Simu, who purchased it for his own permanent exhibit.

[32] According to cultural sociologist Zigu Ornea, Alexis not only built up the whole interior (by enacting Alexandru's "scrupulous suggestions"), but also produced the synthetic gems that were handed out to young disciples during the salon sessions.

According to Sperantia, its "thick sadness" has little to do with Furtună's tone, and more in common with George Bacovia's funereal verse, possibly showing "the early signs of a secret depression occurring deep in the painter's heart.

[23] From about 1913 (when he was aged fifteen), their son had also taken up painting, primarily in watercolor, and was seen by critics such as Georges Charensol and Louis Vauxcelles as highly promising—on par with Pierre Laprade and Picasso's Blue Period.

This event was covered by Barbu Brănișteanu of Adevărul daily, who viewed Alexis as the most accomplished painter of the independent group, admiring his "vigorous conception".

Alexandru chose to remain in place after the 1916 occupation of southern Romania (making a public announcement of this in September 1917),[45] and gave his endorsement to the Central Powers.

[47] He escaped with the bulk of the army into Western Moldavia, and, in June 1917, became a commissioned war artist, with the rank of Lieutenant and a permit allowing him to visit anywhere on the front.

[49] That September, his paintings of battles were exhibited by the Romanian General Staff at the provisional capital of Iași, drawing praise from the art chroniclers at Neamul Românesc.

[51] In April, he and Ressu helped establish there the Arta Română Society, whose other activists were Traian Cornescu, Ștefan Dimitrescu, Oscar Han, Cornel Medrea, Ion Theodorescu-Sion, and Nicolae Tonitza.

[52] In May 1918, the authorities in Iași agreed to sign a separate peace with the Central Powers, inaugurating an uncertain period which ended in September, during the Entente's progress along the Danube.

[29] Macedonski experienced additional success as a set designer on the film La légende de sœur Beatrix, and had one of his paintings purchased by the French state; he was based for a while in Collioure, completing decorative panels for a building in Lesparrou.

[40] In a parallel article for Viața Romînească, Tonitza described the critics' "revolting indifference" toward the art show, suggesting that it stood as a final offense against Soare.

[66] In May 1931, brothers Alexis and Dinu, alongside dancer Paule Sibille, were producing theatrical shows at their own company, "Zig-Zag"—located at Schitu Măgureanu Boulevard No 6, opposite the Cișmigiu Gardens.

[69] In January 1934, after the Romanian Premier Ion G. Duca had been assassinated by the fascist Iron Guard (through the Nicadori), Alexis sent from Paris a telegram condemning the movement and its "most demented attack.

[82] Alexis was interviewed by the Balearic Islands newspaper of FET y de las JONS in January 1947—by which time he himself had returned from Latin America, was holding new exhibits, and was also lecturing at the Escuela Lulistica Mayoricense in Palma.

The reporter assessed that, beyond his "grandiloquent gesturing", Macedonski was timid, and overall a "great intimist"; when not painting, he spent his time reading Don Quixote and the poetry of Saint Francis.

The party was attended by numerous expatriates, including William Haygood of Madrid's Casa Americana, as well as by Joan Alcover's son Pau (who gave readings from his father's poetry).

[91] The Macedonskis then moved to the Spanish mainland, in Barcelona, where Florita was taking a formal training in painting;[82] Carmen had married there, giving birth to Alexis' two grandsons.

[93] He also mentioned his own belief in a society of Übermensch (picked up from Gabriele D'Annunzio's Maidens of the Rocks), and claimed that one's destiny could be improved through "white magic".