Young People on Summer Holiday

In 1932, Vabbe made a large composition for the Jakob Westholm Gymnasium in Tallinn, where he had worked earlier as a teacher. The painting depicts five young men in nature. It is interesting to see how the artist tied the quintet into a complete composition. A peasant behind a ploughing horse hints at the era and creates a parallel with the association of Estonianness with its peasant roots, and has symbolic resonance through the studying young people, reflecting the metaphor of ploughing the field of education. The work also recalls Vabbe’s 1914 visit to Napoli, where he was enraptured by Hans von Marées frescos in the Stazione Zoologica research institute and wrote to Aleksander Tassa: “I have truly not seen any better. Genius is genius.”