Konrāds Ubāns (December 31, 1893 – August 30, 1981) was a

Latvia Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. It borders Russia to the east and Belarus to t ...

painter Painting is a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or "Support (art), support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with ...

from

Riga Riga ( ) is the capital, Primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Latvia, largest city of Latvia. Home to 591,882 inhabitants (as of 2025), the city accounts for a third of Latvia's total population. The population of Riga Planni ...

. He studied at the Riga Art School and was one of the founding members of the Riga Artists' Group before becoming a professor at the

Art Academy of Latvia The Art Academy of Latvia () is an institution of higher education and scientific research in art, located in Riga, Latvia. The neo-Gothic brick building is located on Krišjānis Valdemārs Street, next to the National Museum of Art. In aut ...

Biography

Konrāds Ubāns was born on December 31, 1893, in Riga. His father was a railway worker. From 1902 until 1910, he studied in a commercial school. Later he studied in the

Odessa ODESSA is an American codename (from the German language, German: ''Organisation der ehemaligen SS-Angehörigen'', meaning: Organization of Former SS Members) coined in 1946 to cover Ratlines (World War II aftermath), Nazi underground escape-pl ...

art school for a half year. In 1911, he started studies in Riga Art school where he studied until 1914, when

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

started. Ubāns together with his family went to Russia, where for a short while he studied in

Penza Penza (, ) is the largest types of inhabited localities in Russia, city and administrative center of Penza Oblast, Russia. It is located on the Sura (river), Sura River, southeast of Moscow. As of the 2010 Russian census, 2010 Census, Penza had ...

Art School. In 1916, he was drafted into the

Imperial Russian Army The Imperial Russian Army () was the army of the Russian Empire, active from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was organized into a standing army and a state militia. The standing army consisted of Regular army, regular troops and ...

and served until 1918, when he was demobilized and returned to Latvia. Ubāns was part of the " Green Flower" association of avant-garde artists, notably with

Aleksandrs Drēviņš Aleksandr Davydovich Drevin (, , 3 July 1889 – 26 February 1938) was a Latvian-Russian painter. Biography Drevin was born in Cēsis, Latvia, then a part of Russian Empire. He attended art school in Riga under Vilhelms Purvītis, th ...

( lv), Valdemārs Tone ( lv) and

Kārlis Johansons Karlis Johansson (16 January 1890 – 18 October 1929) was a Latvian-Soviet avant-garde artist. In 1914 he joined the "Green Flower" (in Latvian: ":lv:Zaļā puķe, Zaļā puķe", in Russian: ":ru:Зелёный цветок, Зелёный ц ...

( lv). In 1920, his first solo exhibition was held in Riga. In the same year, he started his work in

Latvian National Museum of Art The Latvian National Museum of Art () is an art museum in Riga, Latvia. It contains the largest collection of national art in Latvia. The museum houses more than 65,000 works of art reflecting the development of professional art in the Baltic a ...

as an assistant of museum director Burkarts Dzenis. In 1922, he took a study trip to

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

and

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

. The next year, his second solo exhibition was held. In 1925, he was addressed by

Vilhelms Purvītis Vilhelms Purvītis (3 March 1872 – 14 January 1945) was a landscape painter and educator who founded the Latvian Academy of Art and was its rector from 1919 to 1934. Biography Vilhems Purvītis was born in Zaube Parish (now Cēsis Munici ...

and took a job in

as a teacher of painting. In 1946, he was promoted to

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other tertiary education, post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin ...

and worked in this post for the rest of his life. In 1959, he was declared as People's Artist of Latvian SSR. In 1980, his last exhibition was held in Riga. Konrāds Ubāns died on August 30, 1981, in Riga. He is buried in the Forest Cemetery.

Art

Konrāds Ubāns is noted mostly for his

landscape painting Landscape painting, also known as landscape art, is the depiction in painting of natural scenery such as mountains, valleys, rivers, trees, and forests, especially where the main subject is a wide view—with its elements arranged into a cohe ...

s and the poetic and intimate atmosphere within them. They are rich, harmonious works celebrating the wonder of nature. He mostly painted landscapes of Riga outskirts in

Pārdaugava Pārdaugava (literally means "Trans" or "Over" -Daugava area, formerly ) is an area most often associated with Riga, composed of several neighbourhoods on the west (left) bank of Daugava River. The name is literally translated as 'over Daugava ...

and

Daugava The Daugava ( ), also known as the Western Dvina or the Väina River, is a large river rising in the Valdai Hills of Russia that flows through Belarus and Latvia into the Gulf of Riga of the Baltic Sea. The Daugava rises close to the source of ...

river valley especially around

Koknese Koknese () is a town in Aizkraukle Municipality in the Vidzeme region of Latvia, on the right bank of the Daugava River. It has a population of nearly 3,000. According to the provisions of the 2021 Latvian administrative reform, Koknese gained ...

. However, he also has painted many

portrait A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face is always predominant. In arts, a portrait may be represented as half body and even full body. If the subject in full body better r ...

s and

still life A still life (: still lifes) is a work of art depicting mostly wikt:inanimate, inanimate subject matter, typically commonplace objects which are either natural (food, flowers, dead animals, plants, rocks, shells, etc.) or artificiality, human-m ...

s. Also, he has worked in

graphic art A category of fine art, graphic art covers a broad range of visual artistic expression, typically two-dimensional graphics, i.e. produced on a flat surface,sculpture Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

. Real maturity in his work can be seen as early as his paintings from the 1920s, when he richly uses motifs and atmosphere of

impressionism Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by visible brush strokes, open Composition (visual arts), composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage ...

References

1893 births 1981 deaths Artists from Riga People from Riga county 20th-century Latvian painters 20th-century Latvian male artists Latvian male painters People's Artists of the Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic (visual arts) Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner of Labour Burials at Forest Cemetery, Riga {{Latvia-painter-stub