Produce from the island of Capri

Of all 20th-century Lithuanian artists, Jonas Mackevičius (1872–1954) must have been closest to the tradition of Russian Academism and the realism of the Peredvizhniki. Fleeing the First World War in 1914, he arrived on the island of Capri in the south of Italy, and remained there for 15 years. The natural and cultural environment helped him deepen the skills he had acquired in art schools in Moscow and St Petersburg. He returned to Lithuania in 1929, after accepting an invitation from colleagues to teach at the Kaunas School of Art. In Capri, he plunged into the study of material form with sincere passion, and painted almost only landscapes and still-lifes; but the beauty and abundance of nature there exceeded his artistic abilities, and, since his outlook had been formed by strict rules, he directed his attention to the work of his predecessors who had surrendered to the magic of Italy. Perhaps this is why his paintings were considered unoriginal, but they enriched interwar Lithuanian art with Italian light and colours, not to mention the exotic aura and unconcealed hedonism, which was appreciated in the years of austerity while the country was developing its statehood.

Text author Giedrė Jankevičiūtė

Source: Law firm Valiunas Ellex art album OBJECTS ON SHOW (2017). Compiler and author Giedrė Jankevičiūtė
Expositions: "Under Italian Skies. Lithuanian artists’ works from the 18th– first half of the 20th centuries", 1 December 2017 – 19 August 2018, Vilnius Picture Gallery (Didžioji St. 4, Vilnius). Curators: Dalia Tarandaitė (project leader), Rūta Janonienė, Giedrė Jankevičiūtė.

Of all 20th-century Lithuanian artists, Jonas Mackevičius (1872–1954) must have been closest to the tradition of Russian Academism and the realism of the Peredvizhniki. Fleeing the First World War in 1914, he arrived on the island of Capri in the south of Italy, and remained there for 15 years. The natural and cultural environment helped him deepen the skills he had acquired in art schools in Moscow and St Petersburg. He returned to Lithuania in 1929, after accepting an invitation from colleagues to teach at the Kaunas School of Art. In Capri, he plunged into the study of material form with sincere passion, and painted almost only landscapes and still-lifes; but the beauty and abundance of nature there exceeded his artistic abilities, and, since his outlook had been formed by strict rules, he directed his attention to the work of his predecessors who had surrendered to the magic of Italy. Perhaps this is why his paintings were considered unoriginal, but they enriched interwar Lithuanian art with Italian light and colours, not to mention the exotic aura and unconcealed hedonism, which was appreciated in the years of austerity while the country was developing its statehood.

Text author Giedrė Jankevičiūtė

Source: Law firm Valiunas Ellex art album OBJECTS ON SHOW (2017). Compiler and author Giedrė Jankevičiūtė
Expositions: "Under Italian Skies. Lithuanian artists’ works from the 18th– first half of the 20th centuries", 1 December 2017 – 19 August 2018, Vilnius Picture Gallery (Didžioji St. 4, Vilnius). Curators: Dalia Tarandaitė (project leader), Rūta Janonienė, Giedrė Jankevičiūtė.