The beginning of the century is considered to be the beginning of the Estonian national art. It was the time of emerging new talents of Ants Laikmaa, Konrad Mägi, Nikolai Triik, Kristjan Raud, Paul Raud, Ado Vabbe and others came a little later. A whole generation of Estonians whose fathers were county clerks, tailors, peasants, estate stewards or innkeepers – gained a more or less thorough art education and rapidly became strong creators and the founders behind the beginnings of Estonian art. No doubt it was one of the most significant stages in Estonia’s art history. 
But the momentousness of it was comprehensible only afterwards. In the time when the art life was sizzling and started to be somewhat organized, the actual excellence of the artists was not that noticeable, to say the least. The society’s indifference towards art was sometimes so painful, that artists and writers who saw themselves as the ones to keep and foster art – put down agonizing thoughts about feeling lonely and abandoned.  Decades later, that is how Bernhard Linde remembers the first showing of Estonian art, taking place in 1906 in connection with an agricultural (!) exhibition. The people came, stopped briefly in front of the paintings and asked: “But where are the animals?” Or according to Gustav Suits, who in his articles from the days of “Noor-Eesti” writes that Estonian artists have been left alone, they are not understood, not to even mention the support of arts patrons or collectors. Or Nikolai Triik, whose legendary “Old Garden” is offered on this auction, writes from Berlin to his good friend Gustav Suits, that he would love to work in Estonia as his purpose is to make Estonian art – but a terrible feeling of abandonment and public indifference towards art make it impossible for him to give up the commissioned work in Germany’s capital city and force him into exile.
Regardless of that, Triik returns and the mid 1910s mark the prime of his career. He is not alone with his creations. One day a young lawyer walks into his studio. In spite of his youth, he has already made a name for himself and is known to talk bravely about the claim for Estonian independence. Nikolai Triik and Jüri Vilms – that’s who it was – greet, shake hands and look around in the studio. You don’t have to look far for their connection – together they were the founders of the Estonian Labour Party. That’s why Triik does not hide even his best works from Vilms. On the contrary – he shows the future Estonian deputy prime minister a painting that he is particularly proud of. “Title”, asks Vilms. “Old Garden”, says Triik. The deal is done and Vilms goes home, where he makes his wife Marie Oberst-Vilms happy with a real masterpiece of art. Of course the story might have been different – but it could have happened this way as well.
The “Old Garden” does not remain hidden in a private collection. To the first art exhibition presenting Estonian art on a broader scale, every artist could bring up to 15 paintings. Triik decides to bring the “Old Garden”, which gets noticed by the critics and art historians.  At Triik’s 50th birthday retrospective exhibition in “Pallas” the piece hangs side by side with another painting on the same theme, completed two years later. In 1939 Alfred Vaga published Nikolai Triik’s monograph, where he gives it a highly favourable review. It could have evolved into one of his “calling cards” after his death – but it was not meant to be that way. When the Bolsheviks came with their bayonets and started to poke at paintings, this piece goes missing. The “History of Estonian Art” published in 1977 knows about the painting, has read about it and maybe seen a reproduction – but has to admit that the work… has not been preserved. This painting that ties together the history of Estonian art and Estonian nation, Triik and Vilms, numerous exhibitions and the Labour Party, Alfred Vaga’s praise and Bolsheviks with bayonets - is a remarkable find. One of the most impressive works of Nikolai Triik is in front of the public eye again after 70 years – cleaned, repaired and rediscovered.
The 1910s and 1920s clearly highlight the role of arts patronage and art collecting in its broader sense. We described Jüri Vilms as one of the buyers of art. His wife later married a reputable lawyer who looked after Triik’s painting with equal respect.  Without an educated and wealthy audience whose purchases would offer artists financial and moral support, the authors would have a hard time maintaining their creative momentum. A romantic myth, according to which an artist has to be poor and live in Paris in a shabby room, can be romantic – but is also cynical. On one hand, to be able to create, there have to be financial possibilities. On the other hand – which is maybe even more important on the 1910s – the artists need to know that their contribution is needed for the public and for the society.  Artists of this era showed admirable confidence, as despite their complicated role they were so actively involved in creating art. True enough, for Triik the 1910s remained the best period in his art. In the 1920s Ado Vabbe starts his teaching career in Pallas, in the end of 1920s he stops exhibiting for a while and soon takes the direction to mainly realist art – he leaves bold ventures and exciting experiments behind into the 1910s. Maybe the reason for this was the lack of public, appreciating experimentation and novelty in art and it was safer for the artists to turn to a genre that nobody complained about and that was, if you can put it this way, more guaranteed in its convertibility? 
But, without doubt, some good things happened as well. Konrad Mägi, who was suffering in Norway from inferior living conditions, poor health and mental strain, sent his Norwegian landscapes to exhibitions in Estonia. Gustav Suits reports: Finally a positive example about the buds of art collecting in Estonia. Mägi clears the table, his works are being bought from exhibitions for 300-400 roubles (even 525 roubles according to some sources), equal to a yearly salary of an office clerk. Result? Mägi leaves Norway, goes to Paris for a while and then dares to come back to Estonia to go on to his Saaremaa and Viljandi “periods”, to create portraits and take part in founding “Pallas”. It might be jumping to conclusions, but would “Pallas” have been born if Mägi did not have the slightest faith in the necessity of art and artists in Estonia? Probably not!  

 In our auction selection this period is represented by the following works:

ADO VABBE (1892–1961)
Figuurid linna foonil. 1913
Figures in a City Background. 1913

NIKOLAI TRIIK (1884–1940)
Vana aed. 1915
Old Garden. 1915

ANDREI JEGOROV (1878–1954)
Kündjad. 1910ndate lõpp
Ploughmen, end of 1910s

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