Erik Adamson

(also E. Ia. Adamson-Eric). Born Aug. 5 (18), 1902, in Tartu; died Dec. 12, 1968, in Tallin. Soviet painter and master of applied arts. Honored Art Worker of the Estonian SSR (1943). Member of CPSU from 1945.

Adamson studied at the School of Industrial Arts in Berlin-Charlottenburg in 1923–24 and then from 1924 to 1927 perfected his art in Paris. Unconstrained picturesqueness and free rhythm characterize his art. Adamson’s landscapes, still lifes, and portraits are marked by a sharp perception of the surrounding world, and his tapestries, leathercrafts, and jewelry evince his creative use of the folkcraft heritage. Representative of his paintings are the portrait of Siuts Barbarus (1928) at the Atheneum, Helsinki, and a portrait of the artist’s father (1930–32) at the Hermitage, Leningrad.