Painter Ants Laikmaa 150th birth anniversary

Ants Laikmaa (1866 -1942) was one of the most colourful persons of the Estonian art history, known as portrait painter, landscape painter whose favourite technique was pastel. Until the Estonianization in 1935 his name was Hans Laipman. After studies in St. Petersburg and Düsseldorf the artist opened a studio school under his own name in 1903 which developed into a important institution where nearly 800 people (including J. Lukk, J. Greenberg, P, Burman, J. Võerahansu etc.) studied. He organized the first overview exhibition of Estonian art in Tartu in 1906. The artist had the tradition of looking for new motifs travelling on foot or on horseback. One of the themes to which the artist returned to again and again was his self-portrait. A fragment of his self-portrait of 1902 is shown also on his postage stamp. Ants Laikmaa's last place of rest is in Kadarpiku village in Lääne County, on the territory of the artist's house museum opened in 1960.