Rihards Zariņš

Biography

In 1914 a drawing of St George slaying the dragon was used for the stamps of the “For the Benefit of Soldiers and Their Families” issue. Almost ninety years later, in 2001, philatelists from 48 regions of Russia chose it as the best Russian stamp of the twentieth century. The designer was Rihards Zariņš.

He himself spelled his surname “Zarriņš”. He was born on 27 June 1869 (15 June, Old Style) at the Ķieģeļi estate in the Governorate of Livonia, where his father was the manager. His childhood was spent in Līgatne, where his father moved to a paper mill, and then in Grīva, near Dvinsk (now Daugavpils). In Grīva Rihards attended a German-language school; at the urging of the headmaster and of the architect Wilhelm Neumann, he went to St Petersburg in 1887. He was admitted to the Stieglitz Central School of Technical Drawing in 1888. He studied under Vasily Mate, graduated with distinction in May 1895 from the course in wood engraving and etching, and received a scholarship for a three-year study trip in Western Europe.

He worked in lithography and engraving in private workshops in Munich in 1896 and in etching in Vienna in 1897–1898, and also visited Paris and Rome. His first drawings had appeared while he was still a student, in the Latvian magazine “Austrums” (“The East”), where he also published articles on ethnography.

From 1899 until the autumn of 1919 he worked at the Expedition for the Procurement of State Papers in St Petersburg, the state printing office that produced banknotes, stamps and other official paper. He began as a draughtsman-engraver and became its art director; from 1912, as head of the art department, he was responsible for the design of everything it produced, banknotes included. Russian banknotes of 1, 3, 5, 10 and 25 roubles were drawn by him, as were both sides of the 100-rouble note of 1910, the “Katenka”, and of the 500-rouble note of 1912. For postage stamps he drew the charity issue of 1905 “For the Benefit of Orphans of Soldiers of the Active Army” (three values: 5, 7 and 10 kopecks), the definitive stamps of 1906 at 5 and 10 roubles, and the series of 1909–1911. In 1913, together with Ivan Bilibin and Evgeny Lanceray, he worked on the jubilee issue for the tercentenary of the Romanov dynasty: five of the stamps are his, from 2 kopecks to 5 roubles. After 1917 he designed the first stamps of Soviet Russia, “Liberated Russia” (“A Hand with a Sword Cutting a Chain”). His sketches for the 1914 competition “Four Ways of Sending” were put to use in November 1922, when stamps were issued to aid victims of the crop failure. An ornamental border from his drawing was also used in the Soviet Union’s 1925 issue for the first anniversary of Lenin’s death.

He made his first bookplate in 1897 for his future wife, Eva. There are about 75 in all, among them plates for Janis Rozentāls and Vilhelms Purvītis, and three for the Expedition itself (1905 and 1918). Latvian scholarship regards him as the founder of the national bookplate. Around 1908 he turned to etching: he planned a large cycle on subjects from Latvian legends, with Kurbads at its centre, and brought it to six plates, among them “Troubled Times” and “Kurbads and the Nine-Headed Devil”.

An old mistake credits him with the design of a stamp of the Belarusian People’s Republic in 1920. The documents do not support this, and he had nothing to do with its design.

From 1912 Zariņš taught at the Higher Art Workshops in Riga. In May 1919, at the invitation of the Latvian government, he moved to Riga and took charge of them; in the same year the workshops became the Latvian Academy of Art. There he built a national school of graphic art, headed the department, and in 1934 received the title of professor. From 1920 to 1934 he also directed the Riga State Printing Office. In Latvia he designed 28 original stamps, from which 82 postage stamps of various values were issued, and made designs for banknotes and coins. In 1921 he designed the state coat of arms of Latvia (according to other accounts, jointly with his student Vilhelms Krūmiņš), and in 1925 the final design of the coat of arms of Riga.

His style is classed as national romanticism: mermaids, birds, broken hearts and vines in ornamental borders, with a marked Art Nouveau influence. He was hostile to Impressionism and to modernism.

He travelled all over Latvia collecting folk ornament. On commission from the ethnographic department of the Russian Museum he assembled collections of clothing, jewellery and household objects of the early and middle nineteenth century from many districts of Vidzeme and Kurzeme. With Jūlijs Madernieks he opened the first private art schools and courses, organised exhibitions and pressed for collections of folk art in Latvian museums. His folk ornaments were published in the three volumes of “Latvju raksti” (“Latvian Patterns”, 1924–1931).

Zariņš died in Riga on 21 April 1939 and was buried in the Forest Cemetery. In 1969, for the centenary of his birth, a memorial exhibition was held in Riga and a catalogue was published.