Princess is back

J.Rozental's art work "Princess with Monkey" (1913)  is back in the the Permanent Display after 10 months travel. :)

The source of inspiration and the stylistic techinques Art Nouveau can be found  in the paintings, drawings and lithographs of Janis Rozantals. In his  writings he appears to be a realistically thinking person. Nonetheless, in his artistic production, Rozentals turns to mythological and folkloric themes reflecting lyrical, fantastic and sometimes pessimistic moods. Rozentals was the first to depict the life of Latvian peasants in his works, despite the fact that they would never buy his canvases.

At the end of the 1890's, Rozentals' works display the lines, ornaments and verticality of Art Nouveau. Dominant pale tones, the neutral field of the wall and the pronounced love for the empty plane of the amor vacui movement have their origins in the Portrait of Malvine Vīgnere-Grīnberga, Eventide. The image of the singer was undoubtely influenced by James Whistler's Portrait of my Mother that he had seen in Paris in 1898, which is affirmed by the rectangular frame and the lightly greyish colour range.

Themes of love, sexuality and death were prominent in Rozentals' oeuvre after this marriage to Finnish mezzo-soprano Elli Forsell in 1903. The flourishing culture of this northern land become an important and inseparable source of inspiration for the artist.

L'age du symbolisme en Lettonie.Musee national d'historie et d'art Luxemourg