Tallinn Trip – Kadriorg Art Museum (Tartu by Peet Aren)

And another one in my series of irrelevant art posts.

I’d like to visit Tartu, the second largest city in Estonia which has a mostly derelict cathedral and is the home of Pühaste Brewery (I mean Tartu, not the derelict cathedral). Peet Aren (1889-1970) painted this in 1928 and the Tallinn City Government, in a fit of either foresight or impulsive bidding, snagged it a few years later. There’s a wintry atmosphere and loose brushwork, I thought it was quite evocative of an early twentieth century European city.

Lovely oil painting as it is, it feels intriguing that this must have felt such a different time for Aren, as he fled Estonia in 1944 and lived the rest of his life in New York. The element that is perhaps unusual is that there is a lot of information on-line about his pre-war paintings, but nearly nothing about after he arrived in New York although he did keep painting. Whilst in the big city, he did seem to do a few street scenes but I can’t see any evidence that he captured the essence of the city, namely hot dogs. This whole thing about just how many people had their place of residence permanently changed because of the outcome of the Second World War interests me as I wonder how individuals coped with it, suddenly scattered around the world in a location they might never have imagined and then trying to lead a new life.

I feel that I’m wittering again…..