Page 28 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Estonia Latvia & Lithuania

26 INTRODUCING EST ONIA , LA T VIA AND LITHU ANIA

Famous People
A history of cultural domination by other nations explains why
only a handful of figures from the Baltic States are internationally
known. It was only with the 19th-century national awakening
movements that the notion of distinctive Baltic cultures gained
popularity. After the brief confidence of the first independence,
the restrictions of the Soviet era meant that most famous
people from the region were either of Russian heritage or
were living outside their native countries. In the years since
independence in 1991, the arts have been hampered by
A portrait by Michael Sittow, a
reduced state funding.
15th-century Tallinn-born artist
Visual Arts
Estonia’s best-known painter was Eduard Wiiralt (1898–
1954), while in the 20th century animators Elbert Tuganov
(1920–2007) and Priit Pärn (b.1946) gained international
praise. Within Latvia, painter Janis Rozentāls (1866–1916)
remains most beloved, although Mark Rothko (see p200) is
more famed abroad. Lithuania has produced several
notable photographers, including Antanas Sutkus (b.1939).

Sergei Eisenstein (1898–
1948), one of the most Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis
influential film directors (1875–1911), Lithuania’s pre-eminent
and theorists of all time, composer, was also an accomplished
was born in Rīga. His artist. His work draws extensively upon
groundbreaking use of Symbolism and the influence of music
editing is best seen in his can be found in his emphasis on mood,
early Marxist cinematic interest in harmony and development
works, including Strike! of themes across a series of paintings.
(1924) and Battleship The tempera on canvas shown above
Potemkin (1925). is entitled The Offering (1909).

Literature
Key to the 19th-century national awareness was the
preservation and creation of stories by authors such
as Latvian Andrejs Pumpurs (1841–1902), Estonian
Friedrich Kreutzwald (1803–82) and Lithuanian Jonas
Mačiulis (1862–1932). Modern literature is equally
celebrated and famous con temporary authors include
Estonian poets Jaan Kaplinski (b.1941) and Jaan Kross
(1920–2007), and Lithuanian novelists Ričardas Gavelis
(1950–2002) and Jurga Ivanauskaitė (1961–2007).
Anton Hansen Tammsaare (1878–1940) is
regarded as the greatest Estonian writer. His
work Truth and Justice is a five-volume series of
novels covering subjects that include rural
Estonia and the Russian Revolution of 1905.

Czesław Miłosz (1911–2004) was born into a Polish
aristocratic family and educated in Vilnius. A poet and
intellectual, Miłosz won the Nobel Prize for Literature
in 1980. He is perhaps best known for The Captive
Mind, a prose critique of Communist ideology.