During the preparations for the Centenary of the Latvian National Museum of Art in 2005, all the permanent displays in the building at 10a K.Valdemāra Street were systematically renewed. Their reorganisation on a chronological style principle was one of the main accents in the jubilee program. The previous displays had been arranged in the 1990s.

The new displays are a result of the research carried out by the Museum specialists over the last ten years. This research gave rise to exhibitions and publications and was a major contribution to Latvian art history. The themes covered include 19th century academic painting, Symbolism, Art Nouveau, Classical Modernism, the New Objectivity, and others.

Some 600 exhibits reflect a wide panorama of periods in art illustrating the progress of the art processes and the changes in stylistic tendencies. The displays, although dominated by painting, are complemented by characteristic examples of sculpture and the graphics collection, which is on show in special glass cabinets.

The permanent display “Latvian Art From the End of the 19th to the Mid-20th Century” introduces Museum visitors to the classics of Latvian art, the evolution of a national school and its development. In turn, “Baltic Art From the End of the 18th to the End of the 19th Century” gives a general overview of international Baltic art which also includes the first professional Latvian artists. “Russian Art From the 18th to the 1st Half of the 20th Century” contains a high quality selection of works. Works by Nikolai Roerich are displayed separately.

Cabinet of Latvian Pastel      Painting of the First Half      of the 20th Century      From 1 August 2009      LNMA permanent display,      2nd floor

Latvian pastel painting of the first half of the 20th century is represented with a number of selected masterpieces. Pastel is the most intimate and delicate among all techniques of painting or drawing. It originated in 16th century in Italy, when the term “pastel”, derived from the Italian word pastello (colored crayon), had been mentioned for the first time. The technique of a pastel is characteristic by use of dry paint what is fixed on the surface – mostly on paper – without using a special cohesive substance. Outstanding master of Renaissance Leonardo da Vinci was one of the first who revealed artistic value of the pastel, though golden age of pastel painting begin at the end of 17th and in 18th century – during period of Rococo and Baroque, when both, classical traditions of pastel technique and circle of themes characteristic for the intimate and chamber style artworks were established.

Alongside with the development of Latvian professional art, in the early 1890s Janis Rozentāls was one of the first who turned to pastel – the so called “minor” painting technique. Remarkable by refinement of tonal nuances, plastic and mellow of lines, pastel was particularly suitable for mastering the trends of Art Nouveau at the turn of 19th and 20th century, explored in number of heartfelt portraits and fascinating mythological compositions by Janis Rozentāls, and in lyrical tempered landscapes by Pēteris Kalve and Rūdolfs Vilciņš.

Works by Latvian artists of 1920s feature growing interest in Modernism, yet search for the new form might be also found in separate pastel paintings, where decorative stylization is more accentuated (Konrāds Ubāns, Niklāvs Strunke). In 1930s, parallel to increasing realistic tendencies, artists’ interest in national themes and types had grown up, followed by a more frequent turn to pastel. The most consequent pastel painter of the period was peculiar artist and personality Voldemārs Irbe. At the end of 1930s and in the early 1940s Erna Geistaute underlined romantic mysteriousness of pastel painting both in motifs and imagery, and in use of technique. In work by Aleksandrs Cīrulis a sensation of dynamic movement is accentuated, but pastels by Fridrihs Milts features rhythmic of deliberately captured squares. The superior traditions of Latvian pastel painting had put the ground for development of this technique in Latvian art also in the second half of the 20th century.