Eesti kunsti oksjonid

Oil on plywood. 1942.
Signature: J. Võerahansu 1942

Johannes Võerahansu (1900-1980), a graduate of Pallas, has been called one of the most prominent landscape painters in Estonian history. His style was influenced by Nikolai Triik, Ants Laikmaa and Kaarel Liimand, and partly by Ado Vabbe. He first visited Saaremaa with other students of Ants Laikmaa in 1920. Years later, this was followed by more frequent creative trips to different parts of the island, and the works completed there became one of the most prominent parts of his portfolio.

An idyllic landscape view from 1942 belongs to one of the most fruitful creative periods in Estonian art history, the short period of German occupation, when art was highly valued. Võerahansu takes the viewer to Saaremaa, fringed with stone walls, where several of his masterpieces from his earlier creative period were completed. In his unique picturesque style – in a greenish-gray color scheme – the artist poeticizes the ancient Estonian village with its calm state. In stormy times, it seems like a haven of security, of all that is good and lasting – a place that awaits you to return again and again.

Text: Katre Palm, Harry Liivrand