Amandus Adamson

While looking back, the arrival of Amandus Adamson to art seems indispensable. Of the trio, having often been quoted by Ants Laikmaa as that of the “pillars of the Estonian art”, consisting of Johann Köler, August Weizenberg and Amandus Adamson, it was the most complicated process for the latter to become an artist. Already at the age of 14, Adamson ran away from an orphanage in order to enter the school of the Art Society of St.Petersburg, but his entrance was postponed due to his yound age by a couple of years. Adamson, who in 1876 first became the external student of painting, thereafter also that of sculpture, received during the couple of years of his studies an abundance of awards. Awards kept coming in also after the graduation of the school, when he was working in St.Petersburg as a freelance artist and a lecturer. A short, but a significant trip to Paris brought in its turn into his creation new winds, which differed from the current academically strong basis.
Critics unanimously call the 1890ies the “intensive flourishing period” of Adamson (Tiina Nurk). It was during the mentioned period, when the artist spent a lot of time near his homestead at the city of Paldiski and for the first time can be detected in his works a direct and sincere becoming one with the sea and sea life. Here are also accomplished the first and most appraised paintings by Adamson, the number of the preserved copies of which today is extremely small. Of the works, having been created in the year 1894 in addition to the present work is only known one more work and naturally this is located in the Estonian Art Museum.
“A view from the Pakri island” is a painting, on the basis of which can be drawn conclusions of both of the creative searches and the personality of the undoubtedly one of the most significant artists of Estonia through ages. The classicist pillars, known from the Russian school of painting, are reflected in the perfectly accomplished form solution of the present piece. Still we can see how the personal – intimate contact with his childhood home has also added other values to the work of Adamson. In this work can be clearly seen the lack of pretentiousness and giving up of sweet dramatism, which had become rare at the end of the 19. century. Instead of an exaggerated scene, the artist has here been himself: calm, calculating, direct, “with a sincere apprehension of the nature and with quite a free brush strike” (Nurk). This is a painting, where art historical dignity and the artist’s creational peak collide with an intimate view angle, the general with the personal, the Estonian art history with one coye of the sea near Paldiski.