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Adamson, Amandus [Amand (Ivanovich)]
(b Uuga Rätsepa, nr Paldiski, 12 Nov 1855; d Paldiski, 26 June 1929). Estonian sculptor. From childhood he excelled in wood-carving. His first serious work after graduating from the St Petersburg Academy of Arts, where he studied (1876–81) under Alexander Bock (1829–95), was a carved frame for Johann Köler’s painting Tribute to Caesar (1883; Tallinn, A. Mus.), commissioned by several Estonian art associations on the occasion of the coronation of Alexander III (reg 1881–94). This work was inspired by Adamson’s impressions of altars in 17th-century churches in Tallinn. Baroque motifs became an important feature of his work, as in his allegorical miniatures Dawn and Dusk (1895; Tallinn, A. Mus.), carved from pear wood. Adamson completed his studies in Paris, where he was influenced by the works of Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux and Jules Dalou. A theme that runs through his smaller works is the sea, as in the Boat’s Last Breath (wax, 1899; biscuit, 1901, executed at the Imperial Porcelain Factory, St Petersburg, Rus. Mus.; marble, 1926, Tallinn, Salme Cult. Cent.). He also sculpted monumental works on the Baltic and Black Seas, such as the monument to the Sailors of the Battleship Rusalka (1902; Tallinn) and a monument to Boats Lost at Sea (1904; Sevastopol’). Alongside his romantic interpretation of the sea, Adamson also depicted the sea as a workplace, as in Fisherman from the Island of Muhu (plaster, 1892) and In Anxious Expectation (bronze, 1897; both Tallinn, A. Mus.).
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