Mountain tops

The well-known and impressive picture with a dramatic mood Winter in the Tatras (1912) by Varnas betrays various methods of execution and resonant colours. However, his pictures were usually painted in greyish colours, like Mountain tops, and he signed them AVR for A. Varnas-Rikkers, indicating his and his wife’s surnames. During the period from 1909 to 1913, when Adomas Varnas and his wife lived in Zakopane, he painted portraits and landscapes in addition to figure compositions, which he sold in order to earn a living. During that period, he often painted autumn and winter views of the Tatras mountains. They were shown at the fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth exhibitions of Lithuanian art. The works were sketched on cardboard and were not big. Varnas is known to have come under the influence of Stanislawski, a professor at Krakow Academy of Art, who exorted the revelation of the ‘psychology’ of nature, and taught students to paint small pictures freely and decoratively. There are very few of Varnas’ works from that period in Lithuania, even though 53 works were sent to the Fifth Exhibition of Lithuanian art.

Source: Law firm Valiunas Ellex art album THE WORLD OF LANDSCAPES II (2013). Compiler and author Nijolė Tumėnienė

The well-known and impressive picture with a dramatic mood Winter in the Tatras (1912) by Varnas betrays various methods of execution and resonant colours. However, his pictures were usually painted in greyish colours, like Mountain tops, and he signed them AVR for A. Varnas-Rikkers, indicating his and his wife’s surnames. During the period from 1909 to 1913, when Adomas Varnas and his wife lived in Zakopane, he painted portraits and landscapes in addition to figure compositions, which he sold in order to earn a living. During that period, he often painted autumn and winter views of the Tatras mountains. They were shown at the fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth exhibitions of Lithuanian art. The works were sketched on cardboard and were not big. Varnas is known to have come under the influence of Stanislawski, a professor at Krakow Academy of Art, who exorted the revelation of the ‘psychology’ of nature, and taught students to paint small pictures freely and decoratively. There are very few of Varnas’ works from that period in Lithuania, even though 53 works were sent to the Fifth Exhibition of Lithuanian art.

Source: Law firm Valiunas Ellex art album THE WORLD OF LANDSCAPES II (2013). Compiler and author Nijolė Tumėnienė