Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis (1875 - 1911)
Lithuania‘s Renowned Composer and Artist
M.K.Čiurlionis
The Čiurlionis family home in Druskininkai.
In summer it hosts numerous concerts
On 22 September 2005 Lithuanians celebrated 130 years since the birth of the composer and painter Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis.
Mikalojus Konstantinas was the eldest son of Konstantinas Čiurlionis, a church organist who had nine children. All the children were taught to play a musical instrument by their father. Music played on the harmonium and on other instruments filled the house. His mother, Adele Ona Marija Magdalena née Radmann, was the daughter of Octavio Radmann, a migrant from Bavaria. She had a vivid imagination, a good voice and liked to sing and to tell stories to her children. The stories and songs young Mikalojus Konstantinas heard growing up have had a great influence on his later creative expression in music and in painting. The often-occurring echoes of stories and other imaginary themes of castles, seas, waves, figures on the bottom of the sea, world creation and the heavens, with their myriad of stars, abound in his music and paintings. Furthermore, a cycle of paintings has quite often a counterpart in music and vice versa, eg. the music movements of the sonata The Sea have counterparts in the cycle of paintings The Sea.
At the age of five Mikalojus Konstantinas could play by ear and very soon had mastered playing written music from notes. The young composer’s talent was noted and groomed at the Duke Mykolas Oginskis orchestral school at Plungė. In 1893 he was accepted at the Warsaw Conservatorium, which he finished in 1899. Then in 1901 he went to Leipzig, Germany, to further his studies, again financially supported by the Duke. Unfortunately, the Duke died a few months before Mikalojus Konstantinas was to finish the Leipzig Conservatorium. His friend E. Moravski came to his aid and supported him financially until he finished it in 1902.
"Serenity", 1903/4, 42.2 x 72.7; paper, pastel
From the cycle "Winter" 1907,
36.6 x 31.3; paper, tempera
Čiurlionis must have been highly regarded by his music professors, for already at the end of his studies at the Warsaw Conservatorium he was offered a teaching position, first in the Music School of Lublin, and later even at the Warsaw Conservatorium. Needless to say, such postings would have eased his material existence. However, the young composer chose a more difficult way of earning his daily bread: he gave music lessons to the children of the well to do. This impecunious subsistence had one advantage that was of the uppermost importance to him: it left him more free time and he could dedicate himself to composing new works.
At the same time he was a welcome guest at the musical entertainment evenings of the Wolman family in Warsaw, where he played many of his now numerous works. As time went by, he became a close family friend and travelling companion. They went to the Crimea and to the Caucasus. The Wolman family sponsored his grand tour of art galleries in Prague, Dresden, Nürnberg and Vienna. Seeing so many great painters and their works through the centuries woke in him an irresistible yearning to take up painting. As a result he began studying visual arts at the Warsaw Academy of Art during 1904 - 1906.
"Sonata of the Sea, Andante" 1908,
73.1 x 62.2; paper, tempera
"Sonata of the Stars, Allegro" 1908,
72.2 x 61.4; paper, tempera
Unfortunately, his period of sustained creativity, in which he painted some of his well-known masterpieces and composed musical works, was comparatively brief - it ended in the late autumn of 1909.
Realism didn’t hold much attraction for him. Neither did Romanticism. However, a few pictures in a Romantic style tinged with lyricism and melancholy are: The triptych Raigardas (1907), The Crosses of Samogitia, The Cemeteries (1909) and a few others. Most of his paintings are painted in an unusual, very original "dreamlike" style with a subtle colour scheme. According to entries in the Encyclopedia Lituanica, Vol. I, pp. 541-549: "Čiurlionis emphasised (in his paintings) the melodic undulation and rhythm of lines and the use of subtle colouring".
"Fugue" 1908, 62.2 x 72.6; paper, tempera
The themes encompass a wide range of phenomena: nature in all its seasons, the land and the seas, the cosmos with its myriads of stars, suns and moons, the creation of world cycles, the Zodiac signs, sonatas of the sun and of the serpent and many others. His favourite media were water colour and tempera on paper. There are very few pictures of oils on canvas. Perhaps his choice of media was motivated by its price? Water colours are less expensive than oils. All we know from his correspondence are complaints about the priciness of paints. However, paintings are not the only art form he practised.
Čiurlionis’ interest in photography and developing photographs was unveiled in the recent exhition in Šiauliai, Lithuania. Jonas Nekrašius writes in the newspaper "Šiaulių kraštas," 30.11. 2005: "Visitors to the exhibition were confronted with photographs from the shores of the Black Sea that Čiurlionis did in the summer of 1905: sailing boats, fishermen at work, mountains, rocks, vast sea vistas, snapshots of local inhabitants and visitors." J. Nekrašius concludes that inherent traits of his art are also reflected in his photographic work: "...a subtle composition, the artist’s philosophical ideas, the mysteries of nature as well as the meaning of time and harmony of the universe." In the same exhition were also photographs of Čiurlionis’ parents, friends, acquaintances, landscapes and every day activities. The artist liked to develop his photographs in the darkroom that he had in the cellar of his parental home in Druskininkai, Lithuania. It seems that Čiurlionis indulged in photography from 1905 to 1909, although this time span cannot yet be determined with absolute certainty. There is, however, evidence contained in a letter to his wife, Sofija Kymantaitė, dating from 1909, that he was developing family photographs.
"Fairy Tale of Kings" 1909,
70.2 x 75.3; canvas, tempera
"Fairy Tale of Castle" 1909,
49.6 x 67.1; cardboard, tempera
In his posthumous collection are many prints, drawings, vignettes, small art works and photographs. Čiurlionis is one of the rare breed of artists who was able to express himself well in two art forms. He created his masterful symphonic poems in music (eg. The Sea and The Forest) and in paintings. They expressed the same themes in different media. Other cycles of pictures are: The Sonata of the Sea, The Stars, The Creation of the World, to name but a few.
Čiurlionis’ pictures were exhibited for the first time in the Art Academy of St. Petersburg in 1906.The same year on 27 December his pictures were exhibited in the first Lithuanian Art Exhibition in Vilnius. His enthusiasm for painting went hand in hand with his love of composing. Čiurlionis became an active member of the Lithuanian Art Society’s Music Department and conducted the choir Rūta ( the Rue - Lithuania’s national flower), composed many songs based on folk songs, harmonized folk songs, wrote articles on the arts in the Lithuanian press. He had his second solo exhibition of some 60 pictures in Vilnius in March 1908. Unfortunately, the visionary quality and originality of his paintings were not appreciated by the public.
Disappointed with this failure, Čiurlionis returned to St. Petersburg. Later of that same year his pictures were exhibited in the Appolon Art Journal exhibition and favourably reviewed by Russian art critics A. Benois, V. Tchudovsky and V. Ivanov. Unfortunately, time was running out for the talented artist. His living conditions and his health were
"Lithuanian Graveyard" 1909,
61.5 x 62; cardboard, tempera
"The Offering" 1909,
71.0 x 78.5; canvas, tempera
rapidly deteriorating and he decided to return to Lithuania, where he married Sofija Kymantaitė on 01.01.1909. Despite a few blissful months with his new bride, the attraction of St. Petersburg, the invitation to join the avant-garde movement le Monde de l’Art (The World of Art), founded by Dhiaghilev of the Ballet Russe of Paris fame, enticed him back to this city. With members of this group he exhibited his pictures and took part in concert performances, where he had the opportunity to play his compositions. He also created some of his much admired paintings: Rex, The Black Sun, Fairy Tale of the Castle and others. Through overwork, poor health, constant financial worries he became depressed. So, in the summer of 1909 he returned to his native town Druskininkai and then joined his wife in Plungė. In the late autumn of the same year he felt better and returned to St. Petersburg, where he hoped to become Stanislavski’s scenographer. The position didn’t eventuate and after a month he became mentally ill. He received medical care in Druskininkai after his return to the homeland and later he entered the psychiatric hospital in Pustelnik, not far away from Warsaw. He died from pneumonia on the 10 April 1911. He wasn’t even thirthy six years old.
His popularity as a painter and composer has been growing ever since his death. It is also worth noting that the Russian Arctic explorer Georgii Sedov named the high rock range on the coast of Franz-Josef Land Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis in 1913, because it reminded him of the artist’s picture "Serenity".

Bibliography:
1. Alijušas Grėbliūnas (Ed.), "Mykolas Konstantinas Čiurlionis - Paintings, Sketches, Thoughts" (English Edition Eds. Raimonda Murmokaitė, Christopher John Barnard), Fodio Publishers, Vilnius, 1997.
2. Vytautas Landsbergis, "M.K.Čiurlionis - Time and Content", (translated form Lithuanian by Olimpija Armalytė), Lituanus, Vilnius, 1992.
3. Genovaitė Kazokas, "The Life and Work of M.K.Čiurlionis", MA Thesis, University of Sydney, 1982.
4. Vytautas Landsbergis, "M.K.Čiurlionis: Pasaulio Sutvėrimas", Vaga, Vilnius, 1973. Texts in Lithuanian, English, German, French, Russian.
5. Antanas Venclova, "M.K.Čiurlionis", Vaga, Vilnius, 1972. Texts in Lithuanian, English, German, French, Russian.
6. "Encyclopedia Lituanica", Vol. I, pp 541- 549. Text in English and bibliographical notes.
7. N.Vorobiev , "M.K.Čiurlionis: Der litauische Maler und Musiker", Kaunas-Leipzig, 1938


Isolde Poželaitė-Davis AM
12.12.2005