Konrad Mägi Southern Estonian Landscape

For many years since World War II this painting was not in Estonia but in Sweden, in the collection of the art historian Ervin Pütsep, from where it returned to Estonia in 2024. 

This painting was possibly made in Võrumaa in southern Estonia. It strikes with its colour harmony and a surprising river motif: although bodies of water were often vigorously present in Mägi’s works, he generally preferred lakes, which was true of his works made in the southern part of Estonia, too. The winding river creates a new kind of rhythm in the painting’s composition and colour scheme. Mägi’s views of southern Estonia tended to be rather festive and decorative, but this particular picture is more intimate and the colour scheme does not strive towards creating an effect but rather aims at blending and converging.

The possibility that this painting was created in the early 1920s cannot be ruled out, either: Mägi worked in those years for some time in Keila-Joa (for unknown reasons and at an unspecified time), and works that are known to have been made there are similar to this one in their colour scheme, yet the comparatively free brushwork suggest the painting dates from the southern Estonia period.