Eerik Haamer

A carefully worked charcoal drawing visualises the organised work of the old Estonians in building the fortress. Erik Haamer emigrated to Sweden and drew illustrations for Kalevipoeg, the book was published in 1954 in Toronto with 25 illustrations by Erik Haamer, which were, of course, banned in the Soviet Union due to certain political reasons. However, Erik Haamer probably had an intellectual dialogue in his head with Kristjan Raud and his illustrations of Kalevipoeg from the 1930s, and Kristjan Raud’s favourite artistic technique was charcoal. Since 2017, Erik Haamer’s hometown Kuressaare and the municipality of Saaremaa have awarded the annual Erik Haamer Art Award.