Jēkaba Strazdiņa un viņa mākslas kolekcijas liktenis padomju Latvijā
The Fortunes of Jēkabs Strazdiņš and his Art Collection in Soviet Latvia

Summary/Abstract: It was almost twenty years ago during my studies of artistic life under the German occupation when looking for the information on the Piebalga Art Museum founded by the artist Jēkabs Strazdiņš (1905–1958), eight high-quality works by Latvian artists were found at the abandoned “Kalnu Ormaņi” farmstead. They were restored and complemented with some other artworks to form the core of the Piebalga art collection. I wrote an article “The Piebalga Art Museum and Fortunes of Its Collection” about this find, assuming it was part of the museum that had perished at the end of the war. In 2016, Jēkabs Strazdiņš’ nephew Dags Strazdiņš donated more than 120 artworks to the Cēsis History and Art Museum. About half of them came from the collection amassed by the artist while the rest were his own paintings and drawings. This event prompted me to return once more to the artist’s last years, post-war events in “Kalna Ormaņi”, his collection for the Piebalga Art Museum and the intricate destinies of his own works in Latvia that had been repeatedly occupied by the USSR. Jēkabs Strazdiņš, a prolific exhibition reviewer and art critic in the 1920s–30s and in the German occupation period, wrote in 1944: “Our museums still lack sufficient collections of their [Latvian old masters’] best works and the information on their lives is scattered and obscure. Some of these artists’ best achievements are owned by private collectors and remain unknown to wider circles of art lovers.” Strazdiņš’ art collection that he gathered from the last pre-war years until his arrest in 1949, included more than 370 works by Latvian artists of the 19th – 20th century, according to the “catalogue” he carefully compiled in exile. The oldest pieces were prints by Oto Bērtiņš and Augusts Daugulis, drawings by Kārlis Hūns, paintings by Arturs Baumanis and Jūlijs Feders along with more works by the former students’ group Rūķis members – Ādams Alksnis, Vilhelms Purvītis, Janis Rozentāls and Johann Walter. Also included were some paintings by the Riga Artists’ Group modernists alongside a large number of paintings, sketches and graphic works by the artist’s contemporaries and even quite a few sculptures complemented by Russian, German, Italian, Dutch, Flemish, Spanish, English, Polish, Lithuanian and Estonian artists’ paintings, graphic works, applied art items and old books. This was the most valuable private art collection in the post-war years because the larger collection gathered by Pēteris Sniķers, Professor at the University of Latvia, had been to a great extent dissipated. In May 1940, a temporary exposition of the future Piebalga Art Museum for which about 100 artworks had been accumulated, was opened in Strazdiņš’ native parish of Jaunpiebalga. The destiny of this collection remains obscure in the post-war years that saw the return of Soviet power; however, it can be assumed that a part of it was destroyed but Strazdiņš managed to save another part by moving it to the nearest farmsteads or to Riga. Strazdiņš’ private collection and the collection he intended for the museum were probably merged. Jēkabs Strazdiņš, a docent at the Latvian SSR Academy of Art and the University of Latvia, was arrested together with his wife in March 1949. Like many inhabitants of Latvia, he was charged with counterrevolutionary activity according to the then oft-used article 58 of the RSFSR criminal code. Firstly, he was accused of failing to report national partisans present at his in-laws’ farmstead; his pre-war and German-period articles were also considered incriminating. As the censorship failed to find any anti-Soviet content in the articles, this part of the charge was dropped and replaced with keeping anti-Soviet literature; he was sentenced to 10 years in a labour camp. After Strazdiņš’ arrest, his belongings, including some 275 artworks, were confiscated and the Finance Department of the Riga City Stalin District handed them over to the State Latvian and Russian Art Museum (now Latvian National Museum of Art). About a quarter of these works were deemed to be of little value and sold. Strazdiņš’ own works ended up in the State Latvian and Russian Art Museum in a similar way. Part of his property – paintings, prints, crockery, furniture and several hundreds of books – were given to the then State Western European Art Museum (now the Art Museum Riga Bourse). A different fortune awaited one of the most precious parts of Strazdiņš’ art collection – nine paintings by the Estonian classic, founder of national painting Johann Köler (1826–1899) that the State Latvian and Russian Art Museum exchanged for six Latvian artists’ works. After Joseph Stalin’s death, Strazdiņš’ sentence was reviewed and only in spring 1956 it was reduced to the time already served. Because of poor health, the artist returned to Riga already in 1954 and tried to rejoin artistic life but died in 1958. He managed to regain his works and the greater part of this art collection before death. The Estonian Ministry of Culture paid him for Köler’s paintings that had ended up in Tallinn. The State Latvian and Russian Art Museum bought Arturs Baumanis’ canonic painting “The Horse of Destiny”, Vilhelms Purvītis’ late work “Autumn” and Nikolai Sverchkov’s (1817–1898) “Rider” but some artworks had been lost. Several paintings significant in Latvia’s art history (Voldemārs Matvejs’ “Seven Princesses” and Rūdolfs Pērle’s “Roses”) came to the Latvian National Museum of Art from the family before the tragic fire of 1997 that killed his children and destroyed a large part of his own works and those of his collection, damaging many others. Works from Strazdiņš’ collection and his own works that are now at the Cēsis History and Art Museum are gradually being restored for exhibition needs, commemorating one of the many artists whose lives were crushed by the Soviet system. His colleague Oļģerts Saldavs described Strazdiņš in 1940: “He is quiet and peaceful by nature, living more for his inner world. (..) As one of these people who strive to be true and avoid hypocrisy, Strazdiņš sometimes runs into a compromise with the art world because he believes in real and sincere artistic development”.

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