MATCHING COUPLES
From May 10 to November 19, 2024, the portrait exhibition “MATCHING COUPLES” will be on display in the Small Exhibition Hall of the Museum.
The exhibition “Matching Couples” displays portraits of couples from the holdings of the Museum of the History of Riga and Navigation – a total of sixty works from the museum’s art collections – paintings, drawings, graphics and miniatures, created in the period from the 17th to the 20th century. Nevertheless, this exhibition is not primarily intended as an art exhibition and it does not claim to provide a complete overview of this genre in the considered period of Latvian art history. Rather, the very people depicted in these paintings are in the foreground of the exposition of thematically selected artworks.
The main intention behind collecting the portraits at the Museum of the History of Riga and Navigation, as well as its predecessors – the Himsel Museum and the Dome Museum has invariably been the desire to create a portrait collection of prominent persons in the history of Riga and Baltics. The collection of the Museum of the History of Riga and Navigation includes many excellent artistic portraits inherited from the Himsel Museum and the Dome Museum, however, similarly to the National Portrait Gallery in London established in the 19th century, the defining criterion for the collections and the selection of objects in this museum from the very beginning has been the significance of the depicted individuals in the local culture rather than the artistic qualities of these portraits. Therefore, the primary condition in the selection of objects and creation of the collection has not been the work of art and its aesthetic value, or its author and their excellence, but the person depicted in the work of art and their importance in local society and culture. This consideration is reflected in the current exhibition, the portraits of couples, which draws from the museum’s collection.
Consequently, the portraits and the life stories of the portrayed persons, as well as the accounts of their life together, conjure a picture of a unified cultural space that exists, continues and develops through several centuries.
The exhibition brings to light the relics stored in the museum’s holdings, valuable new acquisitions, and recently restored objects. The viewers can explore the portraits that are well-known in the history of Latvian art, as well as those that have not previously been exhibited, published, or otherwise demonstrated to a wider public.
During creation of this exhibition, prominent persons were identified in the portraits of several hitherto unknown couples, including a couple of secret lovers. In the course of researching the theme of couple portraits randomly separated couple portraits have been reunited by searching for the missing pendant paintings in the collections of other Latvian museums, so that for the duration of the exhibition, these essentially inseparable portraits could be reunited and displayed together. The identity of several persons in the exhibited paintings of couples still remains unclear, but it has been possible to find out enough about the others to state that the matching couples depicted in the portraits include newlyweds, the couples in long and happy matrimony, unhappy spouses, marriages of convenience, those separated of their own volition, as well as inseparable couples.
“Matching Couples” exhibition poster. Author of collage – exhibition scenographer Reinis Dzudzilo. The collage is assembled of fragments from museum collection paintings – portrait of John Ellis (1798–1877), pastor of the Riga Anglican Church, and portrait of his wife.
Fragments of the exhibition “Matching Couples“. Publicity images. Photo: Marta Laima Gredzena.