The latest exhibition of the LNDM Vilnius Picture Gallery will introduce visitors to the undeservedly forgotten artist Boleslovas Ruseckos – MadeinVilnius.lt

Tuesday, May 7, 5:30 p.m. The exhibition “(Non)academic” opens in the LNDM Vilnius Picture Gallery. Boleslovas Ruceskas”, dedicated to the 200th anniversary of the artist’s birth. For the first time, the life and work of B. Ruseck, who was born in Rome, is presented in such detail. The exhibition will be open until October 20.

“The opening exhibition of the works of Boleslov Ruseckos not only introduces the Lithuanian art heritage and opens up opportunities to enjoy the precise strokes of the artist, but also encourages the discovery of the creator’s personality, formed in the constant tension between the desire to create according to academic rules and the relentless desire to create more freely. I am glad that the curators have prepared an exceptional celebration for the eyes of professionals and art lovers,” says LNDM General Director Dr. Arūnas Gelūnas.

“This exhibition is one of the steps in the long-term activity strategy of the Vilnius Picture Gallery. With exhibitions dedicated to one artist, we aim to present the golden fund of Lithuanian art, to offer a new look at our creators, to make them easier to recognize, original and relevant for today’s audience. Boleslovas Ruseckas is one such author, and the need to appreciate him anew is shown by the abundant not only artistic but also written legacy preserved in museums and archives, which has been almost unexplored until now. Perhaps the visitor will be somewhat surprised by the abundance of documents and sketches, but this is how we want to show that the case of B. Ruseckos provides an extremely rare opportunity to get to know the artist’s life, which took place outside the studio, and at the same time to understand the context in which his works appeared”, says the director of the LNDM Vilnius Picture Gallery Dr. Aistė Bimbirytė.

Talented, versatile and undeservedly forgotten

Until now, B. Ruseckas was known only as one of the most prominent painters of the 19th century to many lovers of old Lithuanian art. the son of painters Kanuty Rusecki (Kanuty Rusiecki, 1800–1860), who painted the famous “The Reaper”. The work of the artist, collector, publicist B. Ruseckos has been presented in Lithuania so far only in fragments: in 1993, 2001 and 2014. small exhibitions were organized, which introduced the visitors to the artist’s work – an album of drawings, one work of religious art and an image of Italy.

The first retrospective of B. Ruseck’s life and work was inspired by 2024. commemorating the 200th anniversary of the artist’s birth. It became an opportunity for the curators of the exhibition to research the artistic and written legacy of B. Ruseckos preserved in Lithuanian and foreign memory institutions and private collections and to present it to the public.

The exhibition of life and work spread over eight exhibition halls introduces the visitor to the personality of the artist, the beginning of his creative path, the period spent studying in Petersburg, Italy, the search for artistic solutions and the results, the public, life and creative space.

The whole of B. Rusecko’s artistic work, assembled from different pieces, reveals a complex creative process from the birth of an idea to the result and the close relationship with the depicted object that develops during it.

The artist combined academic and realistic stylistics. He created religious and allegorical compositions, painted portraits, sketched everyday life around him. His creative legacy is fragmentary, but this is precisely what gives us the opportunity to get to know the artist’s creative kitchen, to look at the beginnings of lost or as yet unidentified great compositions.

Talented, multifaceted and undeservedly forgotten – this is how the LNDM Vilnius Picture Gallery presents B. Ruseckas.

Living in the shadow of his father and aspiring to an academic career

Ruseck saw inspiration, beauty, which, in his own words, he “would like to swallow with his eyes”, everywhere – in the face of his beloved, in the figures of Italian peasants, in the courtyards of Vilnius and in the foliage of the old forest. He lived in art. Even after closing the door of the studio, he delved into the history of art, especially admiring the old Italian masters, the work of the Nazarenes, and his contemporaries considered him the best expert of the Vilnius Art School, collecting their works and photo reproductions.

According to the curators of the exhibition, when looking at B. Ruseck’s creative legacy, lines of letters, a tension emerges that was apparently impossible to avoid. The artist, educated from a young age by his father, one of the most famous artists of the 19th century. K. Rusecko of Lithuanian painters, had a hard time guiding himself from the shadow of authority. The acquired education and cultivated personal concept of art allow B. Ruseckas to be considered a painter of the academic direction, but all his efforts to earn the title of academician were unsuccessful. What’s more, creating multi-figure compositions common to academics was tiring, and he experienced great pleasure and enthusiasm as soon as he broke away from the strict rules, which he often pushed himself into, creating landscapes or small-format portraits, light, lively sketches.

The creative path of an artist

Ruseck was born in Rome, where he spent his childhood. When he was about seven years old, the family moved to Lithuania. Vilnius and father Kanutas left the biggest mark on Boleslov’s early work. This is evidenced by the surviving sketch albums, which are full of panoramic views of Vilnius or important city objects, landscapes, portraits of family members and unidentified persons, still lifes, and still life studies. Early drawings reveal that the young B. Ruseckas also learned by copying lithographs of foreign graphic artists and his father’s paintings.

1843-1850 B. Ruseckas studied at the Petersburg Academy of Fine Arts with the rights of a free listener. While studying, he created lithographs and painted portraits. in 1850 for portraits painted from nature, he was awarded the title of freelance artist. After completing his studies, he painted “Self-Portrait” – one of his best works. in 1853 after creating the allegorical painting “The merger of the Neris with the Nemunas” he was recognized as a candidate for academics.

After completing his studies, B. Ruseck asked for permission to go abroad, but he managed to get it only in 1857. The artist traveled to Warsaw, Krakow, Dresden, Prague, Vienna, Trieste, Ancona, and spent three years in Rome. During the trip, B. Ruseckas recorded the visited places, architectural and art monuments, Italian domestic scenes and colorful national costumes in sketchbooks, and expressed his impressions in letters written to his father.

In the city of his childhood, the artist experienced spiritual upliftment. He visited almost all city museums, galleries, churches, visited artists’ studios, copied paintings, drew and painted sketches from nature. In the evenings he went to the academy to draw a live model, and during the days he worked in his studio. Here he created the paintings “Death of Boleslov the Brave” and “St. The Assumption of the Virgin Mary”.

The artist was interested in history, the past of his country, collected archaeological remains, historical values, was an excellent copyist and connoisseur of old masters, especially Italians, passionate researcher of the Vilnius School of Art. Over the years, he accumulated a collection that testified to these interests. It contains works considered original by Guido Reni, Sassoferrato, Caraccio, Rossio, Mario de Fiorio, as well as copies of paintings by Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Veronese, Rubens, Titian, works by Vilnius creators Pranciškaus Smuglevičius, Simon Čechavičius, Vincent Dmachauskas and others. . Part of B. Rusecko’s collection will also be on display at the exhibition “(Non)academic. Boleslovas Ruceskas” visitors. It has one exhibition hall.

The exhibition opened at the LNDM Vilnius picture gallery will be complemented by an educational program: public lectures by art historians, excursions with exhibition curators and museum guides, educational activities for schoolchildren, adults, families and seniors.