Julius Gentalen
(1903–1966)
View from a Window. 1953
Watercolor. Vm 36 x 43 cm (framed)
price 1 900
What makes Julius Gentalen’s painting amazing is the fact that it is painted from memory. Gentalen left Estonia nine years before the painting was completed, and at the time of its creation was working as an accountant for a mushroom company in the US. It is therefore either a memory or a fantasy, but also an image of identity. The painting depicts a view from the window of the Tallinn Art Hall, the room where Estonia’s main exhibitions took place. In his memories, Gentalen has wandered back to these exhibition spaces, and from there he surveys Freedom Square, redefining himself as an artist. Another striking feature is the bustle of the city in Freedom Square, where Gentalen could have had little idea of the cars or the clothes people were wearing on the streets of his home town. However, the flowers are interesting in their own right: they are daffodils, so it must have been the end of March or April 1953. This means that Stalin has just died. The spacious and airy atmosphere of the painting and the bright colours of the bouquet of flowers may be meant to celebrate this.