View of Tartu

Endel Kõks (21.04.1912-25.11.1983)

1938
Oil on canvas
90 × 100 cm

In 1938, the 26-year-old Kõks was in his fourth year of study at the Pallas Art School. Pallas was located in Tartu and as the most important art school of that time in Estonia, its teachers and students often depicted the city of Tartu (a tradition that faded away after the Second World War when Tallinn developed into the centre of artistic life in Estonia). Most of these depictions, however, are views on a so-called micro-level: streets, yards, courtyards. This kind of panoramic view is exceptional in the so called Tartu chapter of the history of Estonian art and has an effect as if it were a composite portrait of Tartu since Kõks has depicted a view that does not actually exist. It is a fantasy where important symbolic structures in Tartu (the main building of the university, the Stone Bridge, and so on) are brought together.
The composition of the painting is also interesting since Tartu is actually located in a river valley, but here the city is built up like a pyramid rising up into the heights, crowned by three churches, adding an almost sacral admiration of Tartu to the work.
This work was located in Sweden for decades in the collection of former University of Tartu Professor of Art History Sten Karling.