The glass paintings originating from 1650 can be regarded as the first work of art depicting Ruhnu people (see Stained glass windows in Ruhnu wooden church). The first insights to the life of Ruhnu people are the illustrations of the Baltic-German artist Ernst Hermann Schlicting originating from the middle of the 19^th century to the Carl Russwurm’s research. In the beginning of the 20^th century Swedish painter Ivar Kampe (1882–1936) captures local habitants on engravings when visiting Ruhnu. His engraving „The old man of Ruhnu” is located in the Ruhnu church. Elsa af Kullberg painted and drew lots of pictures of Ruhnu people. In 1925 Estonian artist Andrei Jegorov and in 1932 Hungarian artist Ernö Koch stayed in Saaremaa and Ruhnu. In 1936 Eerik Haamer, who was attracted by the Ruhnu theme for more than 20 years, visited Ruhnu for the first time. In his paintings he has captured the island’s domestic life before the year 1944. A number of Haamer’s drafts and etudes made in Ruhnu have preserved, which are interesting documents of the era. During the 1920s until the 1930s, several well-known Estonian artists including Karl Burman senior, Agathe Veeber and Andrus Johani, chose Ruhnu for their motives and inspiration. In the 1960s, several artists’ fellowships discovered Ruhnu, the people, who carry on the tradition of Pallas – Helgi Hirv, Lagle Iisrael, Lüüdia Vallimäe-Mark from Tartu and the reformers of Estonian art Vive Tolli and Olga Terri from Tallinn. Uno Roosvalt captures the life of fishermen. During the 1960s until the 1970s Ernst Kollom, Gita Teearu, Ann Jõers and Külliki Järvila spent their summer and worked on the island. The three last mentioned have created lyrical landscape pictures. The graphic artist Henno Arrak has designed the stamp „Ruhnu old church, 1” (1994), the stamp artist Mari Kaarma has designed the stamp with Ruhnu folk costume (1997). In 1891 Olev Soans’s cultural map of Ruhnu was completed. Peeter Rooslaid’s brooches carry the Ruhnu spirit.

Hermann Schlichting. Ruhnu fishermen

Agathe Veeber. Ruhnu (1947)

Olga Terri. Ruhnu wooden church (1962)

References

• Ruhnu kunstis. Ruhnu Island in Art. Runö i konsten. An exhibition in Kuressaare Raegalerii 17.09-11.11.2009. By Reet Rast. Kuressaare, 2009

Created in 2013