Jurgis Baltrušaitis (May 2, 1873 – January 3, 1944) was a
Lithuania
Lithuania (; lt, Lietuva ), officially the Republic of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Respublika, links=no ), is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea. Lithuania ...
n
symbolist
Symbolism was a late 19th-century art movement of French and Belgian origin in poetry and other arts seeking to represent absolute truths symbolically through language and metaphorical images, mainly as a reaction against naturalism and realis ...
poet and translator, who wrote his works in
Lithuanian and Russian. In addition to his important contributions to
Lithuanian literature
Lithuanian literature ( lt, lietuvių literatūra) concerns the art of written works created by Lithuanians throughout their history.
History Latin language
A wealth of Lithuanian literature was written in Latin, the main scholarly language in ...
, he was noted as a political activist and diplomat. Himself one of the foremost exponents of
iconology
Iconology is a method of interpretation in cultural history and the history of the visual arts used by Aby Warburg, Erwin Panofsky and their followers that uncovers the cultural, social, and historical background of themes and subjects in the visu ...
, he was the father of art historian and critic
Jurgis Baltrušaitis Jr.
Writer
Baltrušaitis was born to a family of farmers in Paantvardys village near
Jurbarkas
Jurbarkas (; Samogitian dialect, Samogitian: ''Jorbarks'', known also by several #Etymology, alternative names) is a List of cities in Lithuania, city in Tauragė County, in Samogitia, Lithuania. Jurbarkas is located in the historic land of Kar ...
, which was then under
Imperial Russian
The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. The ...
rule. In 1885, he entered
Kaunas
Kaunas (; ; also see other names) is the second-largest city in Lithuania after Vilnius and an important centre of Lithuanian economic, academic, and cultural life. Kaunas was the largest city and the centre of a county in the Duchy of Trakai ...
gymnasium, and graduated in 1893; he then entered the Faculty of Physical and Mathematical Sciences at
Moscow University
M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University (MSU; russian: Московский государственный университет имени М. В. Ломоносова) is a public research university in Moscow, Russia and the most prestigious ...
. At the same time, he attended lectures in the Faculty of History and Philology, and studied foreign languages; Baltrušaitis learned 15 foreign languages during his life.
From 1895 onwards, Baltrušaitis began to take part in editing
Moscow
Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...
-based literary magazines, and he began his own creative work in Russian. He joined the
Symbolist
Symbolism was a late 19th-century art movement of French and Belgian origin in poetry and other arts seeking to represent absolute truths symbolically through language and metaphorical images, mainly as a reaction against naturalism and realis ...
movement, and, in association with Sergei Polyakov, set up the publishing house ''Scorpio'', which published the chief Russian Symbolist magazines such as ''
Vesy
''Vesy'' (russian: Весы́; en, The Balance or The Scales) was a Russian symbolist magazine published in Moscow from 1904 to 1909, with the financial backing of philanthropist S. A. Polyakov. It was edited by the major symbolist writer Valery ...
'' and ''
Severnyie Tzvety'' as well as collections of the greatest Russian Symbolist poets. A member of the city's cultural elite, Baltrušaitis was a close friend and colleague of such famous Russian writers and artists as
Anton Chekhov
Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (; 29 January 1860 Old Style date 17 January. – 15 July 1904 Old Style date 2 July.) was a Russian playwright and short-story writer who is considered to be one of the greatest writers of all time. His career ...
,
Konstantin Bal'mont,
Valery Bryusov
Valery Yakovlevich Bryusov ( rus, Вале́рий Я́ковлевич Брю́сов, p=vɐˈlʲerʲɪj ˈjakəvlʲɪvʲɪdʑ ˈbrʲusəf, a=Valyeriy Yakovlyevich Bryusov.ru.vorb.oga; – 9 October 1924) was a Russian poet, prose writer, drama ...
,
Vyacheslav Ivanov,
Maksim Gorky
Alexei Maximovich Peshkov (russian: link=no, Алексе́й Макси́мович Пешко́в; – 18 June 1936), popularly known as Maxim Gorky (russian: Макси́м Го́рький, link=no), was a Russian writer and sociali ...
,
Konstantin Stanislavsky
Konstantin Sergeyevich Stanislavski ( Alekseyev; russian: Константин Сергеевич Станиславский, p=kənstɐnʲˈtʲin sʲɪrˈgʲejɪvʲɪtɕ stənʲɪˈslafskʲɪj; 7 August 1938) was a seminal Soviet Russian ...
,
Mikhail Vrubel
Mikhail Aleksandrovich Vrubel (russian: Михаил Александрович Врубель; March 17, 1856 – April 14, 1910, all New Style, n.s.) was a Russian Painting, painter, Drawing, draughtsman, and sculptor. A prolific and inno ...
and
Aleksandr Scriabin;
Boris Pasternak
Boris Leonidovich Pasternak (; rus, Бори́с Леони́дович Пастерна́к, p=bɐˈrʲis lʲɪɐˈnʲidəvʲɪtɕ pəstɛrˈnak; 30 May 1960) was a Russian poet, novelist, composer and literary translator. Composed in 1917, Pa ...
was the private home tutor of Baltrušaitis's children.
Baltrušaitis published three collections of poetry in Russian, and another three in Lithuanian. He authored many Russian translations of modern literature, including ones from
Henrik Ibsen
Henrik Johan Ibsen (; ; 20 March 1828 – 23 May 1906) was a Norwegian playwright and theatre director. As one of the founders of modernism in theatre, Ibsen is often referred to as "the father of realism" and one of the most influential playw ...
,
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 185430 November 1900) was an Irish poet and playwright. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular playwrights in London in the early 1890s. He is ...
,
August Strindberg
Johan August Strindberg (, ; 22 January 184914 May 1912) was a Swedish playwright, novelist, poet, essayist and painter.Lane (1998), 1040. A prolific writer who often drew directly on his personal experience, Strindberg wrote more than sixty p ...
,
Knut Hamsun
Knut Hamsun (4 August 1859 – 19 February 1952) was a Norwegian writer who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1920. Hamsun's work spans more than 70 years and shows variation with regard to consciousness, subject, perspective a ...
and
Gabriele D'Annunzio. His translation of ''
Hunger
In politics, humanitarian aid, and the social sciences, hunger is defined as a condition in which a person does not have the physical or financial capability to eat sufficient food to meet basic nutritional needs for a sustained period. In the ...
'' by Hamsun is considered a classical rendering of this work into Russian, and has been continuously republished right up to contemporary times.
Politician
Between 1900 and 1914, Baltrušaitis lived in Italy and Norway and spent much time traveling in other countries in
Western Europe
Western Europe is the western region of Europe. The region's countries and territories vary depending on context.
The concept of "the West" appeared in Europe in juxtaposition to "the East" and originally applied to the ancient Mediterranean ...
. During
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
and the subsequent
Russian Revolution
The Russian Revolution was a period of Political revolution (Trotskyism), political and social revolution that took place in the former Russian Empire which began during the First World War. This period saw Russia abolish its monarchy and ad ...
he was in Russia, where he actively participated in the Lithuanian political struggle for independence. In 1919 he was elected President of the
Russian Union of Writers, and was known for his efforts to help and rescue many writers and intellectuals during the first years of the
Bolshevik regime.
After
Lithuania
Lithuania (; lt, Lietuva ), officially the Republic of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Respublika, links=no ), is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea. Lithuania ...
regained independence in 1918, Baltrušaitis was appointed Lithuania's ambassador to Russia in 1920 and held this position until 1939. In 1932 he was honored with a
doctorate
A doctorate (from Latin ''docere'', "to teach"), doctor's degree (from Latin ''doctor'', "teacher"), or doctoral degree is an academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism ''l ...
by
Vytautas Magnus University
Vytautas Magnus University (VMU) ( lt, Vytauto Didžiojo universitetas (VDU)) is a public university in Kaunas, Lithuania. The university was founded in 1922 during the interwar period as an alternate national university.
Initially it was known ...
in Kaunas. In 1939, Baltrušaitis was appointed a counselor of the Lithuanian embassy in Paris. Following
the annexation of Lithuania by the Soviet Union, his son,
Jurgis Baltrušaitis Jr., an art historian and art critic, served as a diplomat for the Lithuanian diplomatic service which continued to represent Lithuanian interests in some Western countries. Baltrušaitis Sr. died in Paris in January 1944; he is buried at
Montrouge Cemetery.
See also
*
Three hares
The three hares (or three rabbits) is a circular motif or meme appearing in sacred sites from East Asia, the Middle East and to the churches of Devon, England (as the " Tinners' Rabbits"), and historical synagogues in Europe. It is used as an ...
References
::In-line:
::General:
Casimir Norkeliunas: the archival site of the works and scholarship, dedicated to Jurgis Kazimieras Baltrušaitis*
*
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Baltrusaitis, Jurgis
1873 births
1944 deaths
People from Jurbarkas District Municipality
People from Rossiyensky Uyezd
Ambassadors of Lithuania to Russia
Lithuanian art critics
Lithuanian diplomats
Lithuanian male poets
Symbolist poets
Russian male poets
Lithuanian translators
Translators to Russian
19th-century poets
19th-century translators
19th-century male writers
20th-century translators
20th-century Russian poets
20th-century Russian male writers
Moscow State University alumni
Imperial Moscow University alumni