On the First Grass

The sculpture On the First Grass depicts an exhausted horse, with its ribs showing, grazing on young grass. Thematically and stylistically, it is related to the Ploughman trilogy, begun in 1907, an allegory of hard work in Lithuania. In 1909, the artist Petras Rimša (1881–1961) sculpted a horse without the human figure, casting it in bronze at the factory of the Lopienski brothers in Warsaw in 1910. The piece was then exhibited in St Petersburg. The artist showed On the First Grass along with eight other works at the Spring Exhibition of the St Petersburg Imperial Academy of Art. Afterwards, the sculpture was displayed at the Exhibition of Lithuanian Art in Kaunas the same year, and at the Sixth Exhibition of Lithuanian Art in Vilnius the following year. The only known copy of the sculpture was sold at the Salon Gallery in Moscow during the First World War. Its whereabouts remained unknown for over 60 years until the 1980s, when it surfaced in the collection of Edmundas Armoška. It has since found its way into the Ellex Valiunas collection.

Text author Jurgita Ludavičienė

Source: Law firm Valiunas Ellex art album THE ART OF MATERIALS. Compiler and text author Jurgita Ludavičienė

The sculpture On the First Grass depicts an exhausted horse, with its ribs showing, grazing on young grass. Thematically and stylistically, it is related to the Ploughman trilogy, begun in 1907, an allegory of hard work in Lithuania. In 1909, the artist Petras Rimša (1881–1961) sculpted a horse without the human figure, casting it in bronze at the factory of the Lopienski brothers in Warsaw in 1910. The piece was then exhibited in St Petersburg. The artist showed On the First Grass along with eight other works at the Spring Exhibition of the St Petersburg Imperial Academy of Art. Afterwards, the sculpture was displayed at the Exhibition of Lithuanian Art in Kaunas the same year, and at the Sixth Exhibition of Lithuanian Art in Vilnius the following year. The only known copy of the sculpture was sold at the Salon Gallery in Moscow during the First World War. Its whereabouts remained unknown for over 60 years until the 1980s, when it surfaced in the collection of Edmundas Armoška. It has since found its way into the Ellex Valiunas collection.

Text author Jurgita Ludavičienė

Source: Law firm Valiunas Ellex art album THE ART OF MATERIALS. Compiler and text author Jurgita Ludavičienė