Tado Daugirdo kūryba Kaune

Abstract

Tadas Daugirdas was one of the most famous personalities in Kaunas at the beginning of the XXth century. While in Kaunas, his main occupation was that of a professional painter. However, his interests were much wider: he worked as an archaeologist, as an ethnographer, he took care of architectural monuments and wrote articles on the work he was doing. His interests ranged from staging amateur plays, making sketches for decorations and costumes, engaging into stained glass and interior projects to reconstructing Lithuanian heraldry. Since 1909 and until the end of his life he was the director of the Kaunas City museum. This study is a survey of the creative heritage of T. Daugirdas in Kaunas. From this period, only one picture by T. Daugirdas ("The Town Hall of Kaunas") is known, but it is obvious that he had painted more. This picture, as well as his earlier paintings, show the influence of Polish naturalism and the so-called "mood" landscapes. In 1908 and 1911 the painter took part in the exhibitions organized by the Lithuanian Society of Fine Arts. During the German occupation in 1917 he also participated in an exhibition as a landscape-painter. In 1910-1911 T. Daugirdas designed three stained glasses where he applied the forms of Lithuanian folk art. A similar stylistics characterizes his other works. In the décor of a large salon of Maironis house he combined the ornaments of folk art and Secession. It was the first décor of this style in Lithuania. T. Daugirdas took part in the activities of the theatrical society "Daina". He wrote and staged plays, created decorations and costume sketches for the drama "Mirga". The cultural and creative activities of T. Daugirdas are very significant. At the beginning of the XXth century he took part in the Lithuanian national movement. He stressed Lithuanian national singularity, and this new trend influenced all the fields that T. Daugirdas was working in.