Nikolai Voldemar Triik (7 August 1884, Tallinn – 12 August 1940, Tallinn) was an Estonian Modern art painter, graphic artist, printmaker and professor. His work displays elements of Symbolism and Expressionism.
Biography
He came from a middle-class family. After graduating from the public schools in 1901, he enrolled at the Saint Petersburg Art and Industry Academy, but was expelled for participating in a student strike during the 1905 Revolution.
He returned home and continued his studies at the private art school operated by
Ants Laikmaa, but later went back to Saint Petersburg to take lessons from
Osip Braz.
The following year, he accompanied Konrad Mägi and
Aleksander Tassa on a trip to Åland and spent some time in Helsinki at the school operated by the "Finnish Art Association". Not long after, he married the daughter of a wealthy factory owner and moved to Paris, where he sampled courses at the Académie Colarossi, the Académie Julian and the École des Beaux-arts.
When his studies there were completed, he visited Norway, then went to Saint Petersburg again and audited classes at the art academy operated by Nicholas Roerich. For the next two years, he moved between Saint Petersburg and Tartu. In 1911, he began producing an art section for a magazine published by the literary association, Noor-Eesti (Young Estonia), and created a series of works based on Estonian folklore. Following more travels to Copenhagen and Berlin, he settled in Estonia permanently in 1913, working as an art teacher.
In 1916, he became a member of the governing council of the "Eesti Kunstiselts" (art association) and, from 1919 to 1920, was in charge of Fine Arts at the Estonian Ministry of Education. That year, he joined a progressive art association named "Pallas" and went to Tartu to teach at their school.
From 1922 to 1926, he gave private lessons at his own studio in Tartu, then worked as a freelance artist until 1928. Five years later, he became the first Estonian to be named a Professor of Art.
Selected works
File:NIKOLAI TRIIK 1905-1909 Väikelinna vaade.jpg| View of a Small Town (1905–1909)
File:Triik-Konrad Mägi.jpg| Portrait of Konrad Mägi (1908)
File:TKM 3094B, Jaht, Nikolai Triik.jpg| Hunt (1913)
File:NIKOLAI TRIIK 1914 Soome maastik.jpg| Finnish Landscape (1914)
File:NIKOLAI TRIIK Võitlus hydraga.jpg| Fight with the Lernaean Hydra (undated)
File:Nikolai Triik, Lennuk.jpg| Lennuk (1910)
Nikolai Triik. Old Garden TKM 0567M.jpg| Old Garden (1917)
Nikolai Triik TKM 0060A.jpg| From the Window (Tallinn) (1913)
Nikolai Triik TKM 0193B.jpg| Portrait of Pr. V. Triik-Martna (undated)
Further reading
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Alfred Vaga, Nikolai Triik, (Vol.1 of "Great Estonian Men"), Loodus, 1939
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Evi Pihlak, Nikolai Triik, 1884-1940 (exhibition catalog) Tallinna Kunstimuuseum, 1959, reissued 1969.
External links
