User:TootsieRollsAddict/Drafts:Ansis Cīrulis

Ansis Cīrulis
Born	February 23, 1883 Majori, Jūrmala, Livonia Governorate, Russian Empire
Died	September 15, 1942 (aged 59) Riga, Ostland, Nazi Germany
Resting place	Forest Cemetery
Citizenship	Latvian
Education	School of Technical Drawing of Baron Alexander von Stieglitz
Occupation(s)	Artist, painter, sculptor, designer of the Latvian flag
Years active	1905 - 1942
Style	Art deco modernism realism
Spouse	Sofija Veisa (m. 1920)
Children	3

Ansis Cīrulis (February 23, 1883–September 15, 1942) was a Latvian graphic artist, painter, and ceramist, predominantly in the Modernist and Art Deco styles. He is most remembered for designing the flag of Latvia. Besides creating the flag of Latvia, he is also well-remembered for his realistic paintings of Latvian culture and history, and his influence in Latvian interior design and ceramic-making. Cīrulis studied art at the School of Technical Drawing of Baron Alexander von Stieglitz in St. Petersburg from 1906 to 1907. He joined various pottery exhibitions from 1905, the proceeds of which allowed him to attend the Parisian Académie Julian from 1908 to 1914. During the First World War, he shifted his attention to painting; he created various nationalistic Latvia-themed paintings and designed some of the first postage stamps of independent Latvia. Returning to Riga in 1925, he then notably worked on several murals; most notably the Ambassador's Accreditation Hall in Riga Castle, the Dzegužkalns concert hall in Dzintari and a sanatorium in Ogre, while continuing to attend several art exhibitions in Estonia, Lithuania, Poland, the Soviet Union, and Norway, as well as his native Latvia. He died on September 15th, 1942, in Riga, aged 59, and was buried in the Forest Cemetery.

Cīrulis' legacy was and remains extensive; in 2018 Latvijas Pasts, Latvia's state postal service, released a block of stamps commemorating the 135th anniversary of his birth and his creation of the first postage stamps of Latvia. His works are kept in the Latvian National Museum of Art, the Latvian National History Museum, the National Library of Latvia, the Latvian War Museum, the Museum of Literature and Music, the Riga History and Shipping Museum, the Liepāja Museum and private collections.

Early life

Cīrulis was born on February 23, 1883, in the port of Majori, Jūrmala, then under the control of the Russian Empire, to Ādams Cīrulis, a carpenter, and Lība (neé Skricki), a housewife. The fifth child out of a total of nine (7 sons and 2 daughters), he completed his primary education at the Majoru-Dubulti Charity Society Primary School before commencing an apprenticeship as a bricklayer at the age of 14 under the “Alberts un Sēja” bricklaying company from 1897 to 1901.