Lithuania’s advance through ruins to light

Petras Rimša (1881–1961) and Kazys Šimonis (1887–1978) were two artists who were not on the teaching staff of the art school, although the latter worked as the head of the library there. They enriched interwar Lithuanian art with their decorative Symbolist compositions and works in the Art Nouveau and Art Deco styles.

Symbolist features are also characteristic of the painting Lithuania’s advance through ruins to light by Kazys Šimonis in the Ellex Valiunas collection. The inscription on the back of the painting indicates that Jonas Aukštuolis, the head of the Lithuanian Embassy in Sweden, gifted it to the then-Stockholm burgomaster Carl Lindhagen and his wife, in acknowledgement for helping Lithuania in 1921.

Text authors Dovilė Barcytė and Ieva Burbaitė

Source: Law firm Valiunas Ellex art album KAUNAS–VILNIUS / 1918–1945 (2021). Compilers and text authors Dovilė Barcytė and Ieva Burbaitė
© LATGA, Vilnius 2025

Petras Rimša (1881–1961) and Kazys Šimonis (1887–1978) were two artists who were not on the teaching staff of the art school, although the latter worked as the head of the library there. They enriched interwar Lithuanian art with their decorative Symbolist compositions and works in the Art Nouveau and Art Deco styles.

Symbolist features are also characteristic of the painting Lithuania’s advance through ruins to light by Kazys Šimonis in the Ellex Valiunas collection. The inscription on the back of the painting indicates that Jonas Aukštuolis, the head of the Lithuanian Embassy in Sweden, gifted it to the then-Stockholm burgomaster Carl Lindhagen and his wife, in acknowledgement for helping Lithuania in 1921.

Text authors Dovilė Barcytė and Ieva Burbaitė

Source: Law firm Valiunas Ellex art album KAUNAS–VILNIUS / 1918–1945 (2021). Compilers and text authors Dovilė Barcytė and Ieva Burbaitė
© LATGA, Vilnius 2025