Latvijas Pasts issues the fourth stamp block in the series Outstanding Latvian Artists. The new release is devoted to the painter Johans (Jānis) Valters (1869–1932) and features motifs from the artist’s works held in the Latvian National Museum of Art and the Literature and Music Museum collection. The first day cancellation of the two-stamp block is scheduled to take place in the Latvian National Museum of Art at 1 Jaņa Rozentāla laukums, Riga, from 10 AM to 7 PM on the 8th of February 2019. The presentation of the stamp block will be held in the same place at 11 AM and it will see the participation of the artist Lilija Dinere as well as representatives of Latvijas Pasts and the Latvian National Museum of Art.
To mark the 150th anniversary of J. Valters on the 3rd of February 2019, Latvijas Pasts releases a two-stamp block dedicated to the artist in the series Outstanding Latvian Artists with a print run of 20,000 copies and a special cover with a print run of 1,000 copies. The face value of each stamp is € 0.50, which corresponds to the cost of sending a regular Class B letter within Latvia.
The visual design of the philatelic releases created by the artist L. Dinere is based on the pictorial reproductions of J. Valters’ paintings Young Peasant Girl (Zemnieku meitene) (1904), Birch Grove (Birztala) (1903–1904) and Jūrmala(1900) held in the collection of the Latvian National Museum of Art, as well as the artist’s portrait photograph from the Literature and Music Museum (the 1890s).
J. Valters, one of the most outstanding Latvian artists, was born in Jelgava, where he also began to learn the basics of drawing. J. Valters went to the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts and was actively involved in the artists’ group Dwarf(Rūķis), and in 1892 he became its leader. At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, together with Janis Rozentāls and Vilhelms Purvītis, J. Valters promoted the prosperity of modern national painting in Latvia – he laid the foundations for the Latvian school of painting, and he stood out in this trio as the artist with a special musicality impact in visual terms. In 1906, the painter left Latvia and stayed in Germany for the rest of his life.
