Janis Rozentals (1866-1916)

Famous Latvian painter.
Rozentals painted many portraits. The creative potential of the artist revealed itself in the portraits of persons spiritually close to him. Rozentals made several portraits of the patron of writers and artists A.Dombrovskis, writer Rūdolfs Blaumanis, artist's wife Elli Forsell.

Janis Rozentals interested in the biological nature of man – the world of passions, the love theme, was typical of his time. He used the popular Biblical plots "Temptation", "Eve with the Apple", motives from the mythology and observations of the reality of his time. At least a part of the fantastic images possessed both, contemporary and local, and individual symbolic meaning.

Artist turned to landscape painting as well, and created a lyrical image of the motherland in the Latvian art. His favorite season was spring, the rebirth of Nature. J.Rozentāls made several altar-pieces to order in the churches of Latvia. In his altar-pieces Rozentāls omitted the dynamics, expressiveness, texture and finished composition. He took into consideration the understanding of art of the simple people and adapted himself to it, yet at the same time he tried not to lose the artistic quality.

The artist tried his skills in monumental painting. In the summer of 1910 he worked at the decorative frieze on the facade of the newly erected building of the Riga Latvian Society. He painted seven symbolic compositions characterizing the main activities of the society.