Eduard Wiiralt

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Eduard Wiiralt (March 20, 1898, Russia – January 8, 1954, Paris) was an Estonian artist.

[edit] Life

Eduard Wiiralt was born near St. Petersburg as the son of Estonian parents who worked on a Russian country estate. In the year 1909 the family moved to Estonia and lived during World War I in Tallinn where the young artist was educated in the Tallinn Arts and Crafts school.

After finishing school in 1919 he continued his studies in the Pallas art school in Tartu under Anton Starkopf. From the year 1916 originate his first woodcuts and linocuts and from 1917 first etchings. In 1922–1923 Wiiralt visited the Dresden Academy of Art, Germany, under professor Selmar Werner. In autumn 1923 Wiiralt returned to Tartu. In this period he was mostly concerned with book illustration.

During the period 1925–1939 he lived in Paris. After that he spent some years in Estonia but from 1946 he moved permanently to France. He died there aged 55 and was buried in the Père Lachaise Cemetery.

In Paris he created his best-known works "Hell" (1930–1932), "Cabaret" (1931), "Preacher" (1932), "Negro heads" (1933), "Claude" (1936).