Kristjan Raud (Viru-Jaagupi parish 1865 – Tallinn 1943), probably the most determined National Romanticist artist in Estonia throughout his career, was equally noteworthy for his extensive antiquarian activism and popularization of material heritage.

He obtained his artistic education at the Imperial Academy of Arts in St Petersburg (1893-97), Anton Ažbe’s school in Munich (1899-1901) and the Munich Academy of Fine Arts (1901-03). Despite his talent and international connections he chose to move back to Estonia, settling first in Tartu, and in Tallinn from 1914 onwards.

He worked in close contact with the “avangardist” Noor-Eesti (“Young Estonia”) group of writers (1905-19) and Eesti Kirjanduse Selts (“Estonian Literary Society”, 1907-40), illustrating their publications, and adopting their slogan Olgem eestlasted, aga saagem ka eurooplasteks! (“Let us remain Estonians, but also become Europeans!”), in merging a nationalist stance with a modernist outlook.

His works are almost exclusively on mythological and nationalistic themes, representing ethnographic heritage in Art Nouveau and Expressionist style. Best known for charcoal and pencil drawings, his somewhat robust and archaic monumentality has been interpreted as a reflection of the authentic Estonian character, but also criticized as crude or backward-looking nativism.

In the years 1896-99 a group of artists including Raud and his twin brother Paul (1865-1930) organized several field trips drawing and painting the rural scenery, landscapes, farm complexes and peasants. Between 1905 and 1910 Raud systematically travelled around the country collecting objects of ethnographic interest.

Raud came to be a key figure in the national movement after the death of Jakob Hurt, combining his artistic goals with a career as a heritage and museum specialist, having worked with the handicrafts collections of the Gelehrte Estnische Gesellschaft and Estonian Farmers’ Society of Tartu. Founder member and head of collection management (1909-13) of the Estonian National Museum, he acted to include material culture in its collections, taking the National Museum of Finland (which he visited in 1909, when it was still under construction) for a model. At the same time he stimulated contemporary art, mounted exhibitions and established several collections, e.g. in the Eesti Üliõpilaste Selts (“Estonian Students’ Society”, 1870-1940). His ambition to realize a dedicated art museum in Tallinn was finally realized in 1919 (Tallinna Eesti Muuseum, now Estonian Museum of Art).

Heritage protection during the First World War and after was likewise under his aegis. Between 1919 and 1923 Raud led the Ministry of Education’s kunsti- ja muinsusasjade osakond (“department for art and heritage”). Thereafter he continued in a similar post in Tartu.

Raud, not unlike the nationalist painter Ants Laikmaa (1866-1942), became a leader of public opinion with his repeated calls to cultivate the nation and with his insistence that art collections must be open to public, not least because of their potential to raise national awareness. In his many articles and speeches one also notices a note of tolerance towards the academic art of the past centuries, produced by Baltic Germans.

Raud opened an art studio in Tartu (Kristjan Raua õppestuudio, 1904-14). Among his best-known students were the applied artist Eduard Taska (1890-1942) and caricaturist/writer Karl August Hindrey (1875-1947). Lessons comprised general knowledge on the history of art as well as field trips.

Raud returned to drawing and painting in the mid-1920s. He had started illustrating the national epic, Kalevipoeg, as early as 1903 already, in a style influenced by Art Nouveau and Symbolism, but publication attempts failed until 1935.