Riga Art Nouveau Architecture II: Mikhail Eisenstein and the "Jewels of Riga"

The area around Vilandes Iela and Alberta Iela is sometimes called the "Jewels of Riga."  This is one of the first areas where Riga Art Nouveau was first built extensively.  Bordering the busier semi-circular boulevards, this part of Riga (sometimes called the "Quiet Zone") is relatively free of shops and city noise.  Here one finds the most famous Art Nouveau houses in Riga, particularly those characterized by what Janis Krastens calls their "vigorous play of flaming ornamental decoration."  These highly decorated buildings sit in the midst of another more austere Art Nouveau style called National Romanticism (which I will talk about in a later post).  And the overall effect of this part of Riga is produced in part by the contrast between the two styles.  However, it is the more extravagantly decorated Art Nouveau that is most famous in Riga, and it is the buildings by Mikhail Eisenstein that are the most famous of all.

Mikhail Esenstein (1867-1920) is known as the "Master of Riga."  Father of the famous film-maker Sergei Eisenstein, Mikhail was one of the most successful and fashionable Riga architects in the first decade of the 19th century.  He built about 20 buildings starting in the late 1890s, but it is the houses he built on or near Alberta Iela between 1901 and 1906 for which he is most famous.  The two pictures above are from buildings in this area.  But he is best known for what has been called an "ensemble" made up of four buildings on Alberta Iela itself, and it is these buildings I will describe in this blogpost.

The first is Pole's apartment house built in 1903, which Krastins calls "Eclectic decorative Art Nouveau."

According to Martin Silis, the facade is characterized by a number of "themes which symbolize growth, development, and man's relationship with nature, all of which are depicted on a background of sky blue ceramic plates.  On a clear day [which this picture is obviously not] the blue background tends to blend in with the color of the sky, giving the impression that the magical creatures are sitting on a single laced wall, which stands out between the two other buildings."  It was one of my biggest regrets about the gray weather we had in Riga that we could not see these buildings in the sunshine for which they were, in part, designed.  Nevertheless we could see the ornaments and did our best to make sense of them.

 

Next door, at Alberta Iela 6, is Lebidinsky's apartment house also built in 1903 and also described as "Eclectic decorative Art Nouveau."  Under renovation, one can only get a glimpse of this building, whose brick façade is unusual for Eisenstein for its brick façade.

Next, at Alberta Iela 4 is another house commissioned by Lebindinsky, this one built in 1904, again with Eclectic decorative Art Nouveau style. 

The building is notable for its curved ledge at the top, its four types of windows, and its varying balcony railings.  The leading figure is the Medusa; the entrance door is guarded by winged angels and winged dragons; and the house itself by lions on pedestals.

Next door at Alberta Iela 2a is Boguslawsky's apartment, built in 1906--one of the most lavishly decorated Art Nouveau buildings in Riga--and the first to be designed on a vertical theme.

Its ornamentation includes sculptural figures, faces, and a set of sphinxes as guards.

The philosopher Isaiah Berlin lived here between 1909 and 1915

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These buildings (and several others by Eisenstein in the neighborhood) are overwhelming in their size and scale.  The face in the second picture above, for example, is almost half a story high.  Also overwhelming is the sheer multitude of ornamentation.  In some cases, virtually every space is covered with some kind of figure.  It's difficult to know how to respond to these buildings  The word used in Latvian for this style is Jugendstilme, and indeed they are, in some ways more like Jugendstil than Art Nouveau, particularly the linearity apparent here and much more predominantly in the buildings to follow in later posts.  But the figural ornamentation is closer to Art Nouveau in a sort of over-the-top way.  Personally, I would call these buildings Eclectic, which is the term used when architects put together several neo-styles (neo-Baroque, neo-Gothic, neo-Oriental, etc.) in one building.  

All of this is important only if you want to understand what the term Art Nouveau means.  To me, based on my reading Art Nouveau is a fuzzy set, but it is generally characterized by a revolt from Historicism and the academy and an attempt to ground its aesthetic in the creative use of nature and the imagination.  That is not to say that Art Nouveau looks the same everywhere.  But it is to suggest that Art Nouveau is identifiable, and--for me at least--I don't identify it in Eisenstein's buildings.

Martin Silis in Mikhail Eizenstein [sic]: Master of Art Nouveau says that "Although the buildings designed by Mikhail Eisenstein do not follow the general trend of Riga's Art Nouveau they are a significant part of the city's architecture and are one of the reasons why Riga is internationally known as a metropolis of Art Nouveau."

I am left with the impression that Eisenstein's was a singular achievement, not easily categorized and appealing to a very specific taste that was clearly ascendant among Riga's wealthy class at the turn of the century.  I'm glad I saw them.  But I do not love them in the way I love Hungarian Art Nouveau.  But that's just me.

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