Latvian Artists and Flâneurism in Europe in the Early 20th Century: The Example of Gustavs Šķilters and Jāzeps Grosvalds

The article focuses on two Latvian artists who can be associated indifferent ways with the notion of flâneurism at the beginning of the20th century – Gustavs Šķilters and Jāzeps Grosvalds. The two artists,in parallel with the visual heritage they created, also left writtentestimonies of their experiences while staying in various Europeanmetropolises, among which Paris was of a special importance, asboth resided there for a considerable amount of time. It is importantto examine these artists’ first-hand experiences based on writtensources as well as visual art testimonies that allow us to track theirjourneys and habits in large modern cities. Latvian culture and arthistory have not so far examined the visual and written heritage leftby the two artists in the context of flâneurism, so it is particularlyimportant to look at their observations of the great cities of Europe.The written and visual heritage left by both artists allows us toassociate them with the concept of flâneurism, as both were drawnto long, leisurely walks through cities, observing the surroundingmodern life and the relationships between the individual and the city,analysing and recording them, evaluating society and commentingon social phenomena. The attitude of Gustavs Šķilters and JāzepsGrosvalds towards the modern city, the way of expression and thevocabulary they used are different. In his texts Šķilters tends toromanticise what is observed, conjuring up living scenes before thereader’s eyes. He also seeks to distance himself from the image of theflâneur; for him the flâneur is an interesting object of observation, acharacteristic, inseparable phenomenon of Paris. Jāzeps Grosvalds,on the other hand, genuinely embodies the image of the flâneur,despite his dandyism, which manifested itself most vividly in theearly years. In Grosvalds’ art, which gradually develops and leadshim to the title of the founder of Latvian modernism, becoming oneof its most significant representatives, there is much more frequentuse of the images of people in the urban environment, and he proves his ability to perceive the essential in every situation he experiences.Gustavs Šķilters and Jāzeps Grosvalds fit into the general pattern ofobservers and describers of modern cities in the early 20th centuryand can be analysed in the context of flâneurism, which is the maingoal of this article. Since this is the first study to deal with Latvianartists from this perspective, its research should undoubtedly becontinued, including not only the two artists considered here, butalso other artists and their visual and literary legacies.