Eduards Kalniņš

Latvian Fishermen in the Atlantic - 1957       [Arsenāls Museum of Arts, Riga]

Eduards Kalniņš was born on 25th October 1904 in Ķeipene Parish of the Riga district. His mother, Anna (Juliana) Kalniņa (1881-1952), was a houswwife; his father, Frīdrihs Kalniņš (1874-1952), was a tailor. For two years he studied at the Vilis Olavs School of Commerce in Riga, but in 1914 he moved to Russia together with family as refugees during the First World War. There, from 1917-1920, he studied at Tomsk High School and attended the studio of painter Yevgeny Moshkevich. He eventually returned to Riga in 1921, where he found work as a commercial painter. In 1922 he entered the Latvian Academy of Art.

After years of study, and travels to Germany, Holland and Belgium, he graduated from the Academyin 1931 with his diploma work "After the Rain". A brief period of military service in the Latvian Army was followed by a succession of exhibitions across Europe. In 1945 he was accepted in the Latvian SSR Artists' Union and for two years was a teacher at the Painting Department of the Latvian SSR State Academy of Art, before being appointed associate professor at the Painting Department in 1947.

In Autumn 1954 he a painting trip in the North Atlantic on the fishermen ship "Atlantija". In 1956 he participated at the 28th Venice Biennale with the painting "New Sails", and the following year was nominated for the award of the Latvian SSR State Prize for the painting "Latvian Fishermen in the Atlantic", but was not successful.

He continued to receive other honours, however. In 1963 he was awarded the honorary title of the Latvian SSR People's Artist; in 1964 and 1969 he was awarded a diploma of the Latvian SSR Supreme Soviet; in 1970 he was elected full member of the Art Academy of the USSR and later that year awarded the Medal for Labour Valour. Further diplomas and honours, and further touring exhibitions continued throughout the 1970s and 1980s. In 1984 he was awarded the Lenin Order. He died on 18th May 1988 in Riga and is buried there at Rainis cemetery.