Märt Bormeister
(1916–1991)
Kihnu Farmhouse. 1955
Oil, cardboard. 24.6 x 34.6 cm (framed)
price 1 900
For painters, the discovery of Kihnu after World War II was linked to nature on the one hand and ethnography on the other. On the island, the archaic architecture, clothing, and lifestyle were admired in a museum-like way, and apparently it was all considered romantic on the one hand, and a window through which to view the traditional lifestyle of Estonians in the middle of the Soviet era. Märt Bormeister has painted the Lemsi area in the eastern part of the island and the Uuetapu (Uue-Tappu) farm there. The farmhouse appears low and old-fashioned, but it is known that only ten years earlier a new thatched roof had been put on the house. At the time, the farm was the subject of a separate newspaper, and it was mentioned how the farm’s landlady offered sparkling beer. Whether this is the same woman we see in the painting is not known.