Paul Raud

Biography

Paul Raud might never have finished the Düsseldorf academy: his studies were paid for by Baroness Natalie von Uexküll, who took an interest in art, and he repaid the debt in portraits. He agreed to return to Estonia in 1894 precisely because of that promise, although his professor offered him a place in Germany and the painter himself was drawn to Paris.

The first portrait he painted was of his patron.

Paul Raud was born on 22 October 1865 (10 October, Old Style) in the village of Kirikuküla, in Viru-Jaagupi Parish, into an old peasant family. He had a twin brother, Kristjan, later a painter and the founder of the Estonian National Museum. Their father, Jaan Raud, a field warden, died early. Paul attended the village school at Koeravere, the parish school in Viru-Jaagupi, the district school in Rakvere and, from 1881 to 1886, the Tartu Realschule. Through the school’s director he came into the household of Professor Teichmüller, a philosopher at the University of Tartu, and for the first time saw works by the Baltic German painters Oskar Hoffmann and Julius Klever. At the university Paul attended a course in art history for half a year. After a year of army service, in 1888, he met Baroness von Uexküll, who decided to support his studies in painting.

In Düsseldorf he studied under Eduard von Gebhardt; the sources give different years for the end of his studies, some 1894, others 1896. He left the academy with good technique and a severe attitude toward his own work. On his return he became the first notable Estonian artist who, after finishing his studies, stayed to work in his homeland. In the following years he gained a reputation as a sought-after portraitist in Baltic German circles, painting commissioned portraits on the estates of Estonia and Livonia.

But commissioned portraits were only part of his work. Alongside them he painted scenes of country life and landscapes he had known since childhood. With his brother and the sculptor Amandus Adamson, who had recommended the places, he travelled to the Pakri Islands (in the summers of 1896, 1897 and 1899) and to Muhu (in the summer of 1898). From these trips came farmyards and village roads, rye harvests, potato lifting, and, among his best-known works, “Rauk from Muhu Island”. He also often painted relatives from Viru-Jaagupi: “Portrait of the Artist’s Mother” (1894) and “Uncle Paul with a Pipe”. The work of this period recalls the paintings of Max Liebermann.

In 1902–1903 Raud travelled in Italy and Germany and spent long periods in Munich, where his brother was studying at the academy. At exhibitions he encountered Impressionism, Symbolism, Neo-Romanticism and Art Nouveau. I think he never fully accepted the Impressionist manner, but his colour changed noticeably: the dark palette gave way to a freer, lighter one. In 1899 he had worked in Germany again, and his style was also affected by the experience of working alongside Ilya Repin.

His brother, with whom Paul kept up a correspondence and who was then living in Tartu, drew him to the theme of “Kalevipoeg”, the Estonian national epic, as well. In 1906 Paul visited Helsinki for the first time, and again in 1909 with his brother; the artist who impressed him most was Akseli Gallen-Kallela. Between 1911 and 1914 he produced a series of compositions: “Linda in Mourning”, “Kalevipoeg Searching for His Mother” and “Kalevipoeg and the Maiden of Saaremaa”.

From 1905 he gave private lessons in drawing and painting, chiefly to Baltic Germans. In 1914 Kristjan moved to Tallinn, and Paul joined in the city’s artistic life: he became a member of the council of the Estonian Art Society and took part in survey exhibitions. From 1914 or 1915 he taught in Tallinn, first at a commercial school and then, from 1923, at the State School of Industrial Art. His studio was in the Neitsitorn (Maiden Tower). After the First World War commissions from the Baltic Germans dried up, and he began painting representatives of the Estonian intelligentsia, among them two public figures with the surnames Jürgenson and Poska.

Raud died on 22 November 1930 in Tallinn. He is buried in Rahumäe Cemetery. His works are held in the Art Museum of Estonia, and a memorial plaque to the brothers has been placed near their former studio in the Neitsitorn.