Aleksander Promet

Aleksander Promet was simultaneously an international man and a patriot. Studies in the St.Petersburg Artistic Vocational School were followed by supplementary studies in London, Paris and Brussels and during the World War I Promet worked as a drawing teacher in different places all over Russia. But the War of Independence brought Promet back to Estonia through the front and here he stayed up to the end of his life. Furthermore - he was absorbed in his creation in national romantism, especially into the themes of Kalevipoeg. His reasearch of national mythology was consistent, but differed considerably for example from Kristjan Raud's "Kalevipoeg" illustrations. Promet's approach was considerably more colourful, impetuous, even more naivistic. Scenes of "Kalevipoeg" have been interpreted quite word-for-word and things that today may seem weird or even funny, where an extremely serious matter for Promet. The work that is very characteristic to the creation of Promet depicts Kalevipoeg not just with devoted solemnity and worshipping, but as a "man from among us" - a farmer ploughing in the field.