Erich Carl Hugo Adamson (more commonly known as Adamson-Eric; 18 August 1902 – 2 December 1968) was an Estonian

artist An artist is a person engaged in an activity related to creating art, practicing the arts, or demonstrating the work of art. The most common usage (in both everyday speech and academic discourse) refers to a practitioner in the visual arts o ...

who worked mainly within the medium of painting in

applied art The applied arts are all the arts that apply design and decoration to everyday and essentially practical objects in order to make them aesthetically pleasing."Applied art" in ''The Oxford Dictionary of Art''. Online edition. Oxford Univ ...

Life

Erich Carl Hugo Adamson was born 18 August 1902 in

Tartu Tartu is the second largest city in Estonia after Tallinn. Tartu has a population of 97,759 (as of 2024). It is southeast of Tallinn and 245 kilometres (152 miles) northeast of Riga, Latvia. Tartu lies on the Emajõgi river, which connects the ...

. He was the fourth child of Jaan and Anna Adamson. Adamson attended school at Hugo Treffner Gymnasium in his native

Estonia Estonia, officially the Republic of Estonia, is a country in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, and to the east by Ru ...

before relocating to

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

to study at the . After studying in Berlin, Adamson then moved to

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

and studied with such artists as Charles Guérin, Roger Bissière, Moise Kisling, and André Lhote before entering the private academy of Russian artist in 1925 and concentrating in the media of

art deco Art Deco, short for the French (), is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design that first Art Deco in Paris, appeared in Paris in the 1910s just before World War I and flourished in the United States and Europe during the 1920 ...

and Neue Sachlichkeit. In June–July 1928, Adamson-Eric, along with fellow Estonian artists Eduard Wiiralt and Kristjan Teder finally opened an art exhibition in

Tallinn Tallinn is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Estonia, most populous city of Estonia. Situated on a Tallinn Bay, bay in north Estonia, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, it has a population of (as of 2025) and ...

. Adamson's career as an artist spanned nearly four decades. He died in Tallinn, where many of his works are on permanent display in the Adamson-Eric Museum on Lühike jalg Street. He is buried at Tallinn's Forest Cemetery.

Gallery

File:Adamson-Ericu majamuuseum, Lühike jalg 3, 8. august 2011.jpg, Adamson-Eric's house museum in Tallinn Old Town. File:Tehnika 15 2011-04-20.JPG, House in Kelmiküla, Tallinn where Adamson-Eric lived from 1936 to 1968.

References

External links

Culture.ee – The Adamson-Eric Museum
1902 births 1968 deaths Artists from Tartu People from Kreis Dorpat 20th-century Estonian painters 20th-century Estonian male artists Soviet artists Hugo Treffner Gymnasium alumni Honoured Workers of the Arts Industry of the Estonian SSR Burials at Metsakalmistu {{estonia-painter-stub