Latvian, 20th century, male.
Born 8 October 1911, in Riga, Russian Empire (now Latvia); died 19 April 1940, in Riga.
Painter, draughtsman, graphic artist. Genre painting, portraiture, literary and social satirical subjects.
Kārlis Padegs was a rarity among Latvian artists of the interbellum period: Primarily a flâneur in contemporaries’ minds, Padegs created some of his nation’s most lacerating imagery, delivering both caustic social critique and urbane humour at a time when the art of his peers grew ever more innocuous and scenic. His childhood was initially spent in wartime exile in Dorpat (now Tartu), Estonia, then as a student at Riga City’s First Elementary School, where he took drawing classes from Ernests Veilands and, working for the applied arts section of the Latvian Youth Red Cross, was first observed to possess precocious interpretive views on classic paintings created by Janis Rozentāls. Considerably older than other students with whom he matriculated, Padegs sidestepped high school, qualifying instead for admission to the Latvian Art Academy in ...
