Eesti kunsti oksjonid

Drypoint on paper. 1946.
Signature: Vaisaluokta kuivnõel 1946 / Eduard Wiiralt / Akavare Vaisaluokta 1946 / E. WIIRALT 1946

The emotionally profound “Lapland Landscape” tells the story of the Northern people growing together with nature, the identity of the Sami, the loss of land, culture and language. This is the primordial nature of the natural people, the knowledge that grows deep within a person that they belong to a certain tribe. This was the feeling that Eduard Wiiralt (1898-1954) so sincerely sought in both Lapland and Estonia, in “Estonian Maiden”, “Viljandi Landscape” and “Virve”.

A little girl named Astrid is seriously peering at the artist next to the adult Ella – behind those big eyes lives a small, big soul, someone who will later grow up to be a true patriot of her people and land. Mark Soosaar’s film “Maised ihad” (“Earthly desires”) shows footage of Astrid’s later residence, a simple hut without electricity, which in its style followed Sami traditions and where she would go to sew moose skins in the summer. However, Ella was never caught on camera by Soosaar; her life was spent hunting moose in the mountains, leaving this print as the only visual record of her.

Text: Katre Palm