Estonian Grotesque: The Graphic Art of Eduard Wiiralt

By Gustė Matulionytė

Eduard Wiiralt (1898-1954) is one of the best-known Estonian artists of all time. A true master of graphic art, he was recognised by his contemporaries for his highly imaginative fantastical compositions. Wiiralt first came into contact with graphic arts while working in the studio of sculptor Anton Starkopf. He studied the works of some of the most prolific masters of both fine and graphic art, such as Leonardo, Rembrandt, Goya, and Callot. This enabled Wiiralt to familiarise himself with a variety of techniques, and perfect his understanding of composition and treatment of detail. However, he did not actively imitate the aforementioned masters in his own works – instead, Wiiralt developed his personal style that focused on black lines and tonal interplay in rendering vivid phantasmagorical imagery.

Eduard Wiiralt, Absinthe Drinkers, 1933, wood engraving.

Though in the early years of his career Wiiralt produced some paintings and sculptures, his ultimate focus lied in printmaking. He embraced a range of techniques, including metal-point engraving, lithography, and woodblock printing. Over the course of his career, though, Wiiralt honed in on two principal materials – copperplate and palmwood block. His approach to wood engraving is especially remarkable, as he produced works with borderline unprecedented amounts of detail, bending the forethought possibilities of the medium.  Across the variety of techniques he worked with, Wiiralt was especially partial to black and grey printing, although he occasionally produced vibrant colour monotypes, woodcuts, and etchings, such as The Violinist (1931).

Eduard Wiiralt, The Violinist, 1931, monotype.

Though in the early stages of his career Wiiralt briefly experimented with some of the styles popular at the time, such as Art Nouveau, in the 1920s and early 1930s he perfected a phantasmagorical style that combined realistic elements with grotesque, dreamlike details. Wiiralt’s busy compositions filled with hybrid creatures are marked with psychological depth; the eyes and hands of the figures especially are imbued with enigmatic expressivity. Another marked feature of Wiiralt’s prints from the early 1930s is an exploration of debauchery, inspired by the artist’s move to Paris in 1925 and his embrace of a bohemian lifestyle. These compositions display influences of the crowded compositions with hybrid creatures seen in the works of Albrecht Durer and Hieronymus Bosch.

Eduard Wiiralt, Cabaret, 1931, copperplate engraving.

Cabaret (1931), as indicated by a scroll with the artist’s name in the lower left-hand corner of the composition, was produced in Strasbourg at the time Wiiralt was living there. According to the artist himself, the scene is set in Strasbourg too – more specifically, it is evocative of artists’ balls held in the city at the time. Cabaret deals with the period of the Roaring Twenties, but the frivolity of the age takes a backseat as the celebration devolves into debauchery and chaos. There is great variety and detail in the rendering of various expressions and physiognomies of the humans populating the scene, but their features are distorted in unnatural ways, ranging from extremely gaunt to overly bloated faces, bent out of shape appendages, and in some instances even multiple faces sharing one head. The crowd is entertained by a pair of half-naked dancers and a band perched on a giant violin, and the revellers are seen in various stages of dancing and intoxication, engaging in lustful and gluttonous acts. On the right, a tree with humanoid faces spouts beverages at the attendees; on the left, the tree is paralleled by a female figure with multiple breasts feeding a gaggle of toddlers, who look nearly as intoxicated as their adult counterparts – in Wiiralt’s Cabaret, all ages engage in debauchery of some sort.

Eduard Wiiralt, Hell, 1932, Copperplate engraving.

Hell (1932) is arguably the best-known work by Wiiralt. This large copperplate engraving features dozens of faces with varying expressions. Unlike in Cabaret, however, the focus lies on the faces rather than the full figures and the acts they engage in. The faces in Hell overlap, their features meld into one another and create a disturbing amalgam of body parts, where the eye of one face becomes the mouth of another. Some of the humans are fused with plants or animals, others no longer appear human altogether, presenting either as strange demonic creatures or humanoid robots, whose flesh has been replaced with durable metal plates. The composition certainly shares some similarities with Surrealist works. Rather than a whimsical dreamlike scene, however, Wiiralt’s Hell presents a violent and pessimistic vision of humanity and seems to suggest degeneracy of the human race as a whole. When asked about the composition years after its creation, Wiiralt stated that the image was borne out of hallucinations at a time when he was struggling with alcohol addiction.

Eduard Wiiralt, Berber Girl with a Camel, 1940, coloured soft ground etching.

After experiencing a health crisis in 1932, Wiiralt drastically turned around his personal life, which reflected in the subject matter of his art as well. Even though his compositions from the early 1930s earned Wiiralt a reputation of being a visionary artist, 1933 onwards he largely gave up fantastical subject matter and moved onto lighter subject matter. His works from this period are more peaceful, contemplative. A lot of attention is devoted to portraits and landscapes, and distortions are largely phased out of his oeuvre. Images of animals begin to figure more prominently as well: many of them Wiiralt produced in zoos, drawing directly onto copperplate as he was observing the animals. Wiiralt also undertook significant travels in the late 1930s, most notably staying in Morocco 1938-39. While there, he produced multiple images of the local people and landscapes. Berber Girl with a Camel (1940) combines Wiiralt’s interests in portraiture and animals and showcases his masterful use of colour in the medium of etching; it is also marked by a sense of calm and peace that features in many of his compositions of this period.

Eduard Wiiralt, Viljandi Landscape, 1943, dry point etching.

At the outbreak of the Second World War, Wiiralt returned to Estonia. Although the tumultuous geopolitical events happening both across the world and in Estonia are not reflected in Wiiralt’s work directly, his compositions are permeated by an unsettling, uneasy quality. In Viljandi Landscape (1943), a lone young girl stands beneath a tall, old tree. The half bare branches of the tree, the low line of the horizon, the lichen-like clouds in the vast expanse of the sky and the lack of human presence make the scene take on an ominous, foreboding character.

The multifaceted nature of Wiiralt’s artistic oeuvre and his innovative compositions are recognised by many as some of the greatest in the history of Estonian art. In the 2020s, Wiiralt’s works continue to receive spotlight in various exhibitions, preserving the legacy of the artist to the modern day.

Notes:

Fauchereau, Serge. Art of the Baltic States. Modernism, Freedom and Identity 1900-1950. London: Thames & Hudson, 2022.

Rannit, Aleksis. “Eduard Wiiralt, an Estonian Etcher-Engraver.” The Yale University Library Gazette 53, no. 3 (1979): 159–68. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40858682.