Antanas Žmuidzinavičius

Antanas Žmuidzinavičius, a painter and teacher, was a People’s Artist of the Soviet Socialist Republic of Lithuania (1957) and a correspondent-member of the Art Academy of the USSR (1958). H e was born on 31 October 1876 in Seirijai in the Lazdijai district, completed his studies at the Teacher T raining College in Veiveriai in 1894, and left for the Lomzha district of Poland to work as a teacher. I n 1898 he moved to Warsaw to work. H e attended Professor Zolotoriov’s evening drawing classes and W . Gerson’s painting studio in 1899. Žmuidzinavičius studied drawing in Paris at the private Académie Colarossi, and painting at Hermenegildo Anglada’s studio and the Vitti Academy in 1905 and 1906. He moved to Vilnius in 1906, where he helped to organise the first Lithuanian art exhibitions and headed the Lithuanian Art Society. I n 1908 and 1909 he travelled to Paris, Geneva, Florence and Rome. H e also lived in Munich and the US A. I n 1914, he and Tadas Ivanauskas travelled along the Atlantic coast. During the First World War, he taught at the Lithuanian Gymnasium in Vilnius. Between 1922 and 1924 he travelled again in the US A, and held solo exhibitions there, in Washington (1923), New York and Chicago (1924). H e returned to his homeland in 1924, and taught drawing at Kaunas School of Art from 1926 to 1940. Between 1925 and 1940 he painted mostly landscapes, and organised a number of personal exhibitions, in Kaunas (1927, 1936, 1940), Panevėžys (1927, with J. Zikaras), and Alytus (1938). Between 1945 and 1951 he was a lecturer and professor (1947) at Kaunas  State Institute of Applied and Fine Arts, and at Kaunas Polytechnic Institute from 1951 to 1957. He died on 9 August 1966 in Kaunas.

Reference: Art album The World of Landscapes (Volume II)  Compiled by N. Tumėnienė. Vilnius, LAWIN, 2013, P. 285