Portrait of V. Vizgirda
Created: 1937.
Material / technique: oil on canvas.
Dimensions: 87 x 77.5 cm.
Signature: A. Valeška 1937 (in the top-right corner of the painting).
Vizgirda was distinguished by an impressive appearance – huge dark eyes, black hair – and a very distinctive character – a calm, thoughtful, but noticeably tense, "burning" artist. In the history of Lithuanian art, a vivid, expressive portrait of Vizgirda has survived, painted by the ars member Antanas Samuolis ("The Painter (V. Vizgirda's Portrait)", 1932). He painted a colleague with only one eye and strongly altered and caricatured expressive facial features. Vizgirda himself depicted himself in his self-portraits as a reserved, somewhat reserved young man in a home environment. Valeška sought to convey his colleague's inner strength – it is felt in the portrait, but the inner tension emphasized by his contemporaries is even more pronounced. Interestingly, Vizgirda liked Valeška's painted portrait. In his assessment, Valeška did not seek a cheap resemblance and managed to capture the portrayed subject's "true self" (Viktoras Vizgirda / ed. Viktoras Vizgirda, Algimantas Kezys. Chicago: Lithuanian Library Press, 1982).
Reference: Art album "Wanderers of Fate," compiler and lyricist Vilma Gradinskaitė, Vilnius: Ellex Valiunas, 2026.
Published: Art album "Wanderers of Fate", compiler and lyricist Vilma Gradinskaitė, Vilnius: Ellex Valiunas, 2026; Art album "Wanderers of Fate" catalogue, compiler and lyricist Vilma Gradinskaitė, Vilnius: Ellex Valiunas, 2026.