Representation of the Estonian War of Independence in Paintings of the 1920s and 1930s
	Kristina Valdru

	Historical painting, especially war painting, is a rare phenomenon in Estonian art; it usually falls outside general developments in art and is difficult to treat as an organic part of Estonian art. The first period of Estonian independence came to an abrupt end before the tradition of thematic painting had time to develop to its fullest, although, during the 1930s, due to the art politics of the authoritarian state, it had every opportunity to do so. There was also a group of artists who were purposefully engaged in the subject. A very small number of historical paintings created in the 1920s and 1930s have been preserved. The majority of works perished or were destroyed during the Soviet occupation. Some works survived the occupation only thanks to the sense of mission of museum staff members, such as Maximilian Maksolly's 24th of February 1918 (1928), featuring the members of the Committee for National Salvation reading aloud the Manifesto of Independence of the Republic of Estonia in the building of the Credit Bank in Tallinn. The painting was taken out of the cellar of the Tallinn Town Museum in March 1989. The first paintings depicting war events were created during the War of Independence. Several artists, such as Voldemar Kangro-Pool, known for his expressionist and Jugendstil erotic drawings in Indian ink and symbolist wood engravings, expressionist artist Peet Aren, and graphic artist Jüri Riis, worked at the war front. They mostly made sketchy drawings and paintings, which, as a rule, differ from the rest of their work.
	The first serious thematic compositions were created only at the beginning of the 1920s. A specific feature of Estonia is that an historical event of national importance - the War of Independence - was first depicted in art media by artists who were not Estonians. The first work on this subject that found wider renown was 24th of February 1918 (1921), painted by Russian Symbolist artist Nikolai Kalmakov, who lived in Estonia in 1920-1922. The work was exhibited at Kalmakov's solo exhibition at the Tallinn Provincial Museum in the spring of 1922. The painting features the members of the Committee for National Salvation, Konstantin Konik, Konstantin Päts and Jüri Vilms, and it became the highlight of the exhibition. A heated discussion broke out in the newspapers about the nationality of the artist, as well as about the price the Stock-Exchange Committee had to pay for the painting, since 200 000 marks was, at that time, a rather large sum for one composition of several figures. The painting was most severely criticised by Peet Aren, who during the war had worked at the Museum of the War of Independence established at the Ministry of War, and who had created watercolours and reportage-like drawings on war subjects. Certainly the criticism was partly caused by bitterness over the fact that a Russian artist was able to earn such a large sum of money using a subject from Estonian history. The work itself survived the occupation - it was hidden in the State Archive; now it is on display in the building of the Bank of Estonia.
	In the mid-1920s, Maximilian Maksolly, an artist of Hungarian lineage who returned to Estonia in 1923, moved powerfully onto the artistic scene. He had travelled in Europe after having graduated from Stieglitz's school of applied arts, and had lived in Russia since 1917, where he had restored murals and painted portraits. He first found renown as a portrait painter in Estonia; his successful portrait of State Elder Konstantin Päts was followed by a score of orders for portraits of other statesmen. In 1926, the Estonian Army appealed to Estonian artists via the Cultural Endowment, calling for paintings and listing subjects ranging from national mythology and the ancient fight for freedom to the War of Independence 1. The aim of the appeal was to get paintings of national content for the army institutions. Although the honoraria were generous, the call did not receive an enthusiastic response. The artists weren't afraid to establish relations with the authorities. Rather, they were afraid that they could not cope with compositional paintings. Moreover, historical compositions would traditionally have required an academic style, which would have meant regression in the context of art trends of the 1920s, which at that time were striving for modernism. Unfortunately, the subject of war did not provoke interest even among expressionist artists, although they could have achieved interesting results. Maksolly, being familiar with academic art, grabbed the opportunity. But the reception of his works was not favourable; besides criticism on the artistic level, the artist's possible motives came under attack. The press initiated a discussion about Maksolly's nationality, claiming that he was a Baltic-German 2. He was accused of being money-hungry. The exhibition of the members of the Estonian Artists' Association in 1926, also showing Maksolly's thematic paintings, provoked devastating criticism from sculptor Jaan Koort. Among other things he called Maksolly an international art adventurist 3. Other critics spoke in Maksolly's defence: 'We have our history, but what have our artists done about it? ... Just as art has to be free and international, artists have to be free of extreme nationalism. Everyone has the freedom to work, and the Ministry of War has enough work to offer all artists who seriously can and want to work, just as Maksolly does.' 4 This comment appeared in the newspaper Kodumaa Hääl in 1926. In spite of criticism, Maksolly's works became enormously popular among the public, reproductions appeared in all kinds of publications, and a series of postcards was also published.
	Besides Maksolly, Arnold Vihvelin, who had studied in St.Petersburg, and worked mostly in the academic style, exhibited his works featuring the War of Independence at the same exhibition in 1926. He worked mostly in Rakvere and continued the subject well into the early 1930s. In 1929, an excursion was organised for the artists to the battlefields of the War of Independence in Latvia with the aim of inspiring them to memorialise the war. Among others, Peet Aren, Roman Nyman, Eduard Ole, and Karl Burman attended the excursion. Maksolly, who had fallen into disgrace in art circles, was not sent an invitation. He left Estonia the same year. The works completed after the excursion were displayed at an exhibition organised at the Administration of Fine Arts Endowment in Tallinn in 1930; among others, Arnold Vihvelin and A. Kulkov participated in the exhibition. The exhibited paintings did not arouse any public interest. In 1934, a crisis in domestic policy hit Estonia, and in the resulting coup, the democratic order was replaced by an authoritarian regime, which also affected the artistic world. Professional chambers were established following the example of Italy. In 1934, the Information and Propaganda Department was created by the government, the establishing of which has been related to the fact that Estonian statesmen had received their education under the Czarist regime 5. But still, mass production of propagandist art, which was so typical of the time, did not emerge in Estonia. War paintings had only a secondary role in the work of the majority of artists who created them; quite often it was a case of a single painting, standing far outside the rest of the artist's work, being perhaps only an experiment. Very few artists continued working on the subject of war. Art critics rarely paid attention to war paintings; most probably there was no reason to talk about them. War paintings were a marginal area in Estonian art, but there was still a social subscription for them, as we can see from the appeals, competitions and orders. It is true that in the 1930s the number of war paintings continued to grow, although slowly. This was caused by the art politics of the authoritarian state, allowing larger grants and honoraria for ideologically suitable artworks.
	In 1934, the Museum of the War of Independence and the Union of Applied Artists announced a competition of war paintings with the aim of getting postcard designs on the subject. Twenty artists participated in the competition; the first award was given to B. Korolev, the second to A. Kulkov. 6 The works, which have not been preserved, were displayed at the Museum of the War of Independence from 4 to 12 March 1934. In the spring of 1935, the Administration of Fine Arts Endowment together with the Committee of the History of the War of Independence again organised a competition of war paintings, aiming at receiving illustrations for the two-volume publication The Estonian War of Independence. The illustrations of the publication were selected from the works submitted to the competition, and other works specially commissioned from certain artists were used as well 7. 'The general impression is that it is a difficult subject well above the reach of the majority of competitors. Maybe even above the reach of the jury... This difficult task is made even more difficult and complex by the requirement of depicting not just any war, but our own war, our war of independence, our fight with the oppressive powers. In short, to depict the heroic era of the Estonian nation, the rise of its heroism and its development - in single episodes', wrote one of the leading art critics, Hanno Kompus 8. Awards were given to Nikolai Kull, a painter of town- and seascapes, to portrait painter Erna Brinkmann and to Oskar Sädek 9, among others. The latter two submitted war paintings to the Estonian Academic Association of Professional Artists exhibition in 1937 as well. All these artists had, for longer or shorter periods, been the students of Ants Laikmaa's studio school; Brinkmann and Sädek belonged to a special circle of friends meeting at the studio. At the 19th exhibition held by the Art Society Pallas, besides his customary landscapes, Juhan Pütsep displayed the historical composition Jüri Vilms On His Way To Finland, featuring an Estonian politician of tragic fate, who had been executed in Finland in 1918 under circumstances which have remained unclear even up to the present. One of the first experiments in the genre of monumental painting was made in 1938. On 10 October 1938, Aleksander Vardi's monumental painting, covering the whole back wall of the great hall, was unveiled in the Estonian Students' Society building. The three-part work, painted on canvas, featured the more important scenes from the Society's history. The height of the painting was four metres, the width of the central part 4.3 metres, the width of the side parts 2.3 metres. The third part of the work depicted members of the Society with their blue, black and white flag at the War of Independence. The author of the painting had been helped by Elmar Kits 10, a student of the Pallas art school, who in later decades also created monumental paintings and murals. Vardi planned to continue working on the painting in the future, as he believed that the part depicting the War of Independence needed improvement. Vardi used his traditional soft brownish and yellowish colouring in this work as well. The work has not survived intact; some parts of it are now at the Art Museum of Estonia. Nowadays, the cultural and historical value of the few historical paintings is more important than their artistic value (the same goes for the time of their creation as well.) The young state needed myths and symbols that could unite its people and boost patriotism. Acting as the disseminator of these myths and fixing them in people's minds, art gave a face to history.
	1 Loodus, R. M. Maksolly - a Painter of Battles. Kodumaa, 08.03.1989. 2 An Enterprising Hungarian Artist. Vaba Maa, 01.05.1926. 3 Koort, J. The Fourth Art Exhibition of the Estonian Artists' Union. Päevaleht, 26.09.1926. 4 In Defence of a Serious Artist. Kodumaa Hääl. 01.05.1926. 5 Pütsep. E. Artistic Life in Estonia II. Stockholm, 1996. p 34. 6 An Exhibition of War Paintings At the Museum of the War of Independence. Päevaleht. 04.03.1934. 7 The Estonian War of Independence 1918-1920. Vol. I. Tallinn, 1996, p. 7. 8 Kompus, H. Spring Art Exhibition. War Paintings. Päevaleht. 18.05.1935. 9 Awards to Eight War Paintings. Päevaleht. 30.04.1935. 10 The Largest Painting in Estonia Will Soon Be Completed in Tartu. Postimees, 04.09.1938.
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