Novel
Homo novus
Not translated into English
Anšlavs Eglītis · 1943
Synopsis
Juris Upenājs, a poor young painter from the countryside, arrives in Riga in 1938 to make his way. He enters the world of studios and exhibitions under the protection of Kurcums, a curator and critic, and there experiences in turn success, failure, contempt and love, while the old master Piegāzs advises him to seek the spirit of his people in his painting. Around him, the artists of the capital form a satirical, lively gallery.
Context
The text first appears in a Riga newspaper in 1943, but the war prevents publication in volume form, which comes out in 1946 at Esslingen from Grāmatu Draugs, with drawings by Veronika Janelsiņa, and then reappears in Brooklyn in 1960. Jānis Veselis, who reviews it in 1946, praises its composition and style, finds the milieu of the painters described from within by a man who knows it, and holds the scenes in a girls' lycée to be the most successful. A German translation has appeared under the title Homo novus, ein Künstlerroman aus dem Riga der dreißiger Jahre.
Who it is for
A sharp satire of the world of Riga's painters. It helps to know that its author was himself a painter before he began to write.
Prizes and reception
Adapted for the cinema in 2018 by Anna Viduleja; the film was among the successes of Latvia's centenary.