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The artist Niklāvs Strunke (1894–1966) is credited by the poet Aleksandrs Čaks and other contemporaries with introducing the Italian greeting “ciao” to Riga.
While his peers were rushing off to Paris, the most famous “Latvian Italian” lived in Rome, on the island of Capri, and in Florence from 1923 to 1927, also traveling through Venice, Tuscany, the Bay of Naples, and the Amalfi Coast.
In the Eternal City, captivated by Italy, the pittore lettone rented a studio near the Vatican; in Florence, he settled in the old town of Oltrarno; and on Capri, he stayed on the Marina Grande side.
The interwar years spent in Italy had a profound influence on the original artistic expression of this versatile Latvian modernist and apprentice of the old masters.
With its stripped-down, abstracted composition, harmonious proportions and rhythm, and vibrant local color, the small painting Sorrento (1924–1925), executed on a wooden panel, stands as an icon of Strunke’s easel painting and his “Latvian Italian” identity.
During his Italian period, Strunke’s artistic style became a distinctive fusion of modernist geometrization and inspiration drawn from Italian primitivism.
