From the Treasury of the Estonian Art Museum

Elmar Kits (1913-1972) graduated from the Pallas Higher Art School in 1939 and he was considered the future hope of Estonian art. The artist’s vigorous talent made him, although in changed circumstances, one of the most significant creators of post-war art. Elmar Kits was born and lived all his life in Tartu. He was an influential leading figure of the art city with traditions and was capable of working in several styles, both in a soft lyrical world of impressions as well as considering canons of realistic treatment. His attempts with cubist deformation became of great importance - they belong among the peaks of the Estonian post-war modernism. Elmar Kits’s painting, After Dinner (1944), is the scene of a summer afternoon delicately painted in light hues. Only the tower of St John’s that lacks its steeple refers to the war and destruction in Tartu. Despite a very traditional scene the picture embraces a very large number of hints, including the importance of pre-war culture and the tense situation of a frontline city.