Erich Pehap was born on 10 April 1912, in the Kantrek\u00fcla district of Viljandi. Later, the family,\nwhich included four siblings besides Erich, lived on the narrow Liiva Street. His father, Jaan, was a\npoliceman and constable in Viljandi, and his mother, Leena, did needlework at home.<\/p>\n
Erich initially attended the Viljandi 2nd Elementary School, located next to the Town Hall. In 1926,\nhe continued his education at the Viljandi County Gymnasium for Boys, where his art teacher was\nPallas Art School graduate Julius Mager (1901-1997), who also inspired Erich to enrol in art school.\nIn 1932, Pehap enrolled in the Pallas Art School. Altogether, his art studies lasted eight years,\nlearning painting at the Tallinn School of Arts and Crafts and at Nikolai Triik\u2019s studio in Tartu,\ngraphics at Ado Vabbe\u2019s studio, and watercolour techniques under Anna P\u00f5llusaar-Triik. In the\n1930s, the teaching method was based on realistic representation. The years spent by Pehap in Tartu\nwere labour-intensive, and he produced a number of sketches and works, most of them in charcoal,\nwatercolour, pastel, pencil, sanguine, pen, and ink. In 1934, Erich Pehap displayed his works at an\nexhibition, and over the next ten years he participated in more than twenty group exhibitions across\nEstonia. Some of his works were also sent to exhibitions in Riga, Kaunas, Warsaw, Vienna, and\nPrague. Erich\u2019s family supported his studies by sending him money and parcels to Tartu, but the\nsudden death of his father meant he had to rush his studies and take responsibility for the family\u2019s\nwelfare. Erich Pehap graduated from Pallas Art School in 1939 with a degree in graphics, and in\n1938 he had also qualified as a teacher at the Didactic-Methodical Seminary of the University of\nTartu.<\/p>\n
In 1941, Pehap was at the beginning of his career as a professional artist, working as a freelancer in\nViljandi. Thanks to a successful personal exhibition in 1942, he was able to buy a printing press. In\nearly 1944, Erich managed to escape to Finland together with his younger brother, Allan. From\n1949, the artist lived in Canada, where he worked as a freelance artist, quite an exception among\nEstonian artists in exile.<\/p>\n
Erich Pehap was a very productive artist, who produced thousands of works, for example, his 1943\nlist of works includes 366 works, 93 of which feature Viljandi. His works can be found in many art\nmuseums and private collections in Estonia, Canada, Germany, Sweden, France, England,\nSwitzerland, Latvia, New Zealand, the Czech Republic, Italy, and the United States (Vallikivi,\n2020).<\/p>\n
View of K\u00f5rgem\u00e4e Street, 1935, charcoal, paper (private collection) \u2013 in the foreground, simple\nwaggon trolleys used to transport gravel from the city quarry. The drawing also features one of the\nsteepest streets in Estonia, K\u00f5rgem\u00e4e Street, which has a gradient of more than 18% in places. By\n\nthe time the drawing was created, Pehap had been studying art for three years, sketching on cheap\nwrapping paper (called \u2018bread wrapping paper\u2019), which his family collected and sent to him in\nTartu. The work is one of the first sketches of Viljandi.<\/p>\n
Valuoja valley, 1943. Charcoal drawing on paper. Viljandi Town Government. View from Vaksali\nStreet across Vana-Vaksali Street and the manor pond (now the Ugala Theatre pond). M\u00f5isa tee\n(now Hariduse Street) on the left and the aircraft factory in the distance.<\/p>\n
Ruins of the Viljandi bank building (1941). Watercolour on paper. Viljandi Museum. The Bank of\nEstonia building, with its outstanding architecture, was set on fire by a Russian Extermination\nBattalion in 1941. It is the only work of art depicting the aftermath of the fire.<\/p>\n