Journey through Latvian heritage

The diverse crowd of people descending down the stairs from the church hill, gradually fill the space of the painting.

On careful inspection, this work like an encyclopaedia of Latvian province shows both the typical environment and a cross-section of the typical small-town society, where each personage holds an individual life story.

The costumes and poses eloquently characterise people of different types, age groups and social belonging without striving to draw attention to the society's ills or heroising the personages.

Rozentāls made it not only into a summary of his studies at the Imperial Academy of Arts in Saint Petersburg, but also to some extent into a patriotic research project, preparing studies of his characters and often using self-made photographs.

As a brilliant depiction of Latvian life, already after its first exhibition in Riga in 1896 this work brought Rozentāls the kind of popular affection he could only dream about during his studies in St Petersburg.

It is an outstanding example of national realism it has always held one of the central places in Latvian art history.