HAGEN, August Mathias - b. 1794 Vijciems, d. 1878 Tartu

German painter from the Baltic region. He was born in Vijciems (Wiezemhof) in Livonia. Livonia is a historic region along the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea, which was once the land of the Finnic Livonians. It was a province of the Russian Empire, now it is divided between Latvia and Estonia.

Hagen was the son of a miller. After studying in Munich and travelling in the Alps, he became a drawing master at the high school in Dorpat (Tartu). In 1837 he was given an honourable appointment as ‘free artist’ at the Academy of St Petersburg.

Sea Bay

Hagen’s landscapes depict his native Livonia. They are done with extraordinary precision and a fine sense of the effect of light and sky in the landscape. But what is most striking is the role of the human figures. The figure seen from the back in the inhospitable mountain landscape has literally and figuratively reached the end of his road.