Alfred Hirv

The road of Alfred Hirv from a poor Urvaste family at Võrumaa to becoming one of the favourite artists of the high society of St.Petersburg is actually a story of itself. But the family’s sacrifices in the name of his education were fruitful: the studies in the creative vocational school of Alfred Stieglitzi (where studied the majority of the outstanding Estonian authors of the 20. century) were followed by private studies at academician Julius Klever. Already at the age of 17 Hirv was invited for the first time to the art exhibition of St.Petersburg, which was more than remarkable while taking into account the current level of Russian painting. The exhibition of the Artists’ Society of Imperial St.Petersburg also marked Hirv’s belonging to the Society and a couple of years later he was also elected the Chairman of that same Society. Later studies in Rome and Munich only deepened Hirv’s absorption into the values of the painting of the 17. Century.
Even though we know exceptionally little of his creation and even this scanty overview has mainly dispersed between the local museums and the spaciousness of Russia, we can certainly assert that Hirv’s best performance are his still-lives. Exactly here Hirv is unsurpassed at the exact depiction of the reality, creation of colour brightness and also at exploring of light, shadow and reflections. Hirv’s deepening attention made him return again and again to the familiar motifs. A copper jug, watermelon, grapes and apples are undoubtedly Hirv’s best known models, where is in the clearest manner shown their skilful and brilliant depiction.