Watercolor and ink cityscape with stylized building facades, arches, and black outlines in blue, beige, and orange tones.

Romans Suta and Aleksandra Beļcova Museum

Artworks by Romans Suta

Romans Suta (1896–1944) was an extraordinary creative and multifaceted personality. He not only painted, designed and illustrated books and created designs for theatre plays and motion pictures, but also managed his own art studio, wrote essays on art for the press, established and operated within the “Baltars” porcelain painting workshop and developed furniture and interior design projects.

Painted portrait of a man wearing a red cap with a pipe in his mouth and blue clothing against a blue-gray background.

Abstract composition of geometric planes and forms in a painted still life, showing stairs, cylinders, pipes and glass vessels.

Abstract painting of a stylized female figure with closed eyes holding a cylindrical object in a blue and green interior.

Abstract painting with geometric, colorful shapes in red, blue, pink, and black tones.

Figurative painting of a seated man in a red hat playing a banjo and a woman sitting behind him with a musical instrument on her lap, in an interior with a brown background.

Portrait painting of a woman against a blue-gray background, shown standing with her arms crossed.

Painted bust portrait of a bald man against a dark background.

Black-and-white ink drawing of a spatial composition showing a man’s portrait in a cap, two smaller figures, and geometric interior elements.

A musician group drawn in black ink on yellowish paper plays around a table, rendered with sweeping gestures and expressive stylized silhouettes.

A red and pink watercolor drawing shows four stylized human figures standing in an interior with large planes in the background.

Black-and-white drawing of an industrial city scene with human figures and building silhouettes beneath a bridge or metal structure.

Ink drawing composition with several human figures around a large clock and architectural structural elements on a yellowish paper background.

Black-and-white ink drawing of several stylized figures on a city street, including a lamppost and part of a bicycle.

Black-and-white drawing of two stylized nude female figures in an interior with curtains, with a small bird above them.

The collection of artworks by Romans Suta comprises slightly more than 1500 museum objects, including the author’s oil paintings, porcelain items crafted at the “Baltars” workshop and M.S. Kuznecov factory, Indian ink drawings, watercolours, sketches for book illustrations and tableware, costume and set design studies for theatre performances and films, and furniture built according to his designs. The museum’s display reflects Romans Suta’s achievements in each sphere of his activity and illustrates different phases of his creative career. Overall, the largest numerical group of works within the collection consists of tableware sketches, alongside set and costume design studies for theatrical productions.

Colorful avant-garde figure in a white costume with red and black accents, shown against a plain light background.

Colored stylized figure composition on brown paper, depicting a person with raised hands in a traditional costume with yellow, blue, and black shapes.

Abstract multicolored painting with building facades, street details, and lettering at the top.

Several colorful figures in costume sketched with ink and pencil on a brown sheet of paper, arranged in two rows.

Porcelain plate with a painted rural dance and music scene, showing people and animals in a circular composition.

Round decorative plate with a stylized abstract composition in red-brown, white and black tones depicting horses and human figures.

Round decorative plate with a cubist composition of horses and riders in black, white, brown, and red tones.

Round decorative ceramic plate with a stylized rural scene and human figures in brown, red, blue, and white tones.

Brown-glazed ceramic vase with a painting of classical Greek-style figures on a light background.

Watercolor sketch of three horses and a cart on a light background, with broad green-blue brushstrokes above and below the composition.

Abstract watercolor and pencil composition on yellowed paper with geometric rectangles in black, blue, pink and gray.

Watercolor and ink interior sketch showing a room with walls, a fireplace, doors and furniture.

Watercolor sketch of a loosely abstract interior scene with human silhouettes, large red and blue areas, and geometric lines on yellowish paper.

Among the best-known objects in the collection are Suta’s 1920s paintings Still Life with a Pipe, Harlequin, Artist Jānis Plase with his Girlfriend and Open-Air Dance. Exceptional, too, are his Indian ink drawings Clearance Sale, Strike and others. Of the set and costume design, the most striking examples include sketches for Carlo Gozzi’s play Princess Turandot (Jelgava Workers’ Theatre, 1926) and Igor Stravinsky’s ballet Pulcinella (Latvian National Opera, 1933). Unique artifacts withing the collection also include furniture sets crafted after Suta’s sketches – a table for the café “Sukub”, as well as two tables and a stool for the café “Luna” (“Mona”).

Artworks by Romans Suta

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