Voldemar Vaga, a legendary master-mind and lecturer of art history, one of the celebrities of the Estonian artistic culture of the 20. century, also continuously dealt with artistic creation. The current work is an extremely rare example of the activity of the leader of art history of the previous century as a highly valued artist. Vaga’s creation has, despite several personal exhibitions in central exhibiting places in the Estonian Art Museum and Tartu House of Artists and the fact that his works are in the collections of Tartu and Estonian Art Museum, remained concealed from the wider public.
As the student of Ants Laikmaa, Vaga concentrated already as a youngster on the creation of airy landscapes and city scapes. In 1920ies and 1930ies (incl. 1939) he made several trips to France and other places in Western Europe that laid the foundation both to Vaga’s extremely deep knowledge and the replacement of the existing German-centered attitude of the Estonian art history with stressing of French influences. Also as an artist, Vaga turned to the free and impetuous French art, creating careless summertime cityscapes. “The realistic and exact manner of depiction is accompanied by original culture of taste, refinement,” marks art historian Evi Pihlak pertinently. Depicting of Paris carries Vaga’s aspirations towards playfulness and optimism and at the same time reflects the French ideals of the Estonian art as a whole.