Konrad M\u00e4gi is one of the most recognised Estonian painters of all times.
\nKonrad M\u00e4gi was born on 1 November 1878, into the family of the lord of Hellenurme Manor, in\nTartu County. The family moved to Tartu when Konrad was 11 years old. His education was cut\nshort as he started his working life early as an apprentice in the carpentry workshops of M.\nSangernebo and Blum, and from 1897 to 1902 in the Bandelier furniture factory. M\u00e4gi\u2019s deepening\ninterest in art led him to study at the Stieglitz Art School, in St Petersburg, where, among other\nthings, he studied furniture design. Forced to leave school after taking part in student unrest, he\nwent with friends to \u00c5land in the summer of 1906, where he made his first paintings. After moving\nto Helsinki in the autumn, M\u00e4gi worked as a transcriber of Estonian folk songs.
\nIn 1907, the artist travelled to Paris, the city of his dreams, where he lived in La Ruche, a colony of\nartists and writers, and studied for a short time at open academies. Due to a lack of money, it was\nvery difficult for M\u00e4gi to find better opportunities for further studies and for painting. Tired of life\nin the big city, Konrad M\u00e4gi travelled to Norway with his friends in 1908, initially for the summer.\nDespite the difficulties, the artist stayed there for two years and began to paint more actively. In\nNorway, he is known to have produced 75 paintings (or more, which he probably sold to earn\nmoney), mostly of deserted landscapes.
\nIn 1910, Konrad M\u00e4gi managed to sell his paintings at art exhibitions in Tallinn and Tartu, which\nenabled him to return to Paris. Having hoped to make a breakthrough in the art community there, he\nwas disappointed and returned to his homeland, via Germany, in 1912. In 1913, the artist was\ngripped by depression and, due to poor health and living conditions, he went to the island of\nSaaremaa to recuperate (https:\/\/konradmagi.ee\/et\/elulugu\/).
\nKonrad M\u00e4gi came to Viljandi in the autumn of 1913, at the invitation of his childhood friend\nFrieda Sangernebo (1884\u20131949) and settled in the welcoming home of the Sangernebo-Baars\nfamily. The artist spent the next three years alternately in Viljandi and Tartu, painting in Viljandi,\nSaaremaa and V\u00f5ru in the summer. He spent the autumn and winter teaching in Tartu. M\u00e4gi was\nconstantly short of money, complaining of poor health and low spirits.
\nKonrad M\u00e4gi\u2019s first major exhibition of one hundred paintings was put up at the end of 1913, in\nViljandi, in the Koidu community centre. The artist and critic Jaan Vahtra (1882\u20131947) wrote in the\nlocal newspaper that Konrad M\u00e4gi\u2019s works followed the latest French art trend and seemed too\nintense for the average person. According to Vahtra, M\u00e4gi\u2019s paintings copied nature in a way that\nseemed natural to the untrained eye (Vallikivi, 2020).
\nFrom time to time, while living in Viljandi, Konrad M\u00e4gi painted together with Villem Ormisson\n(1892\u20131941), the son of the owner of the local Grand Hotel, who had studied under Wilhelms\n\nPurvitis at the Riga Art School. After Konrad M\u00e4gi\u2019s death, Ormisson was invited to teach drawing\nand painting at the Pallas Art School, in Tartu, which Konrad M\u00e4gi had co-founded in 1919.
\nM\u00e4gi travelled in Europe again from 1921 to 1922, stopping for a longer period in Germany and\nItaly. His health gradually deteriorated and he died in Tartu, on 15 August 1925.
\nKonrad M\u00e4gi is thought to have completed a total of around 400 paintings, but half of them have\nbeen lost or destroyed. During the Soviet occupation, in the late 1940s and early 1950s, M\u00e4gi\u2019s\nwork was ostracised and banned from public display.
\nOil painting. The Viljandi Landscape (1914\u20131915) is one of the first known works on the Viljandi\ntheme to have been created using the dotting technique.
\nThe views of the castle hills and the lake are more powerful, and it could be argued that the\npaintings of the ruins have an Italian flair.<\/p>\n
Oil painting. Viljandi motif (1915\u20131917).
\nThe style of this piece of art differs from that of earlier works made in Viljandi. The red-brick St\nPaul\u2019s Church has an expressive effect against the blue sky. The painting was probably completed\nseveral years later, around the same time as the landscapes of Otep\u00e4\u00e4 and Lake P\u00fchaj\u00e4rv. The fate of\nabout ten works by Konrad M\u00e4gi depicting views of Viljandi and the precise nature of what they\ndepict is unknown (Vallikivi, 2020).\nFive paintings (four from the castle hills and one from the Ugala Theatre)<\/p>\n