Interest in the Baltic art scene has skyrocketed in recent years. Works by artists who, in connection with or after World War II, left Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania to continue their lives in Sweden or other countries have become highly sought after.

At Stockholms Auktionsverk, we are now presented with two of the most prominent names: Erik Haamer and Eduard Wiiralt.

Erik Haamer was born on the island of Saaremaa in Estonia, studied at the Pallas Higher Art School in Tartu, but was forced to flee to Sweden in 1944, where he remained active for the rest of his life. Eduard Wiiralt was born in Saint Petersburg. From 1915 to 1918, he studied printmaking at the School of Applied Arts in Tallinn. This was followed by studies in sculpture, among other disciplines, but Wiiralt quickly realized that printmaking was his true passion.

In the theme Baltic Art – A Collection: Part I, we encounter Wiiralt as a printmaker, with works including the astonishing, suggestive, and magnetic “Põrgu (Hell/L’enfer)”. From Erik Haamer, we see several examples of his characteristic depictions of fishing villages, rendered in his signature palette of blues and burgundy reds.

For Sweden, this is a particularly relevant area of interest, as many of the Balts who fled the horrors of war ended up in Sweden. Here, they continued to work, and their art has spread across the country.

If this is a topic you have yet to discover, Baltic Art – A Collection: Part I serves as the perfect introduction.

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