Janis Rozentāls was the most versatile of the turn of the century artists. Viņš, Son of a Saldus blacksmith, he was familiar with folk art but received academic education. Initially he painted in the manner of 19th century realism, but then turned to impressionism with touches of art nouveau. The forefathers of our academic painting, Jānis Roze, Kārlis Hūns and Jūlijs Feders, often worked outside of Latvia for education purposes, whereas the art of Janis Rozentāls, Jānis Valters and Vilhelms Purvītis, three of our pre-eminent classics, found its greatest stimuli in their homeland. When the Riga Art museum was built in 1905 with Vilhelms Neimanis as its first director, the formation of the richest art collection in Latvia was begun.

The arts scene of the 1920s and 1930s was exceptionally rich in creative experiments. Jēkabs Kazāks, Jānis Liepiņš, Leo Svemps, Ģederts Eliass, Voldemārs Tone, Konrāds Ubāns, Uga Skulme, Marta Liepiņa-Skulme and some other artists who painted in the expressionist manner called themselves the Riga Group and were particularly active. In the period between the two world wars the national school in painting took root. Much of the credit was due to Vilhelms Purvitis who, as rector of the newly founded Academy of Arts, showed talent for diplomacy: he hired as teachers the most gifted among the modernist rebels: Jēkabs Bīne, Augusts Annuss, Rūdolfu Pelše, Kārlis Brencēns.

The Soviet culture functionaries had but little effect on Latvian art. The artists – particularly Indulis Zariņš, Edgars Iltners, Edvards Grūbe -- took note of the fact that the authorities approved – albeit grudgingly – the depiction of the Latvian Riflemen theme (for, according to Soviet legend, they played a key role in the Bolshevik coup d’etat in 1917 and in the subsequent fighting with the White armies), which became symbolic of yearning for Latvian sovereignty (for the Riflemen were honored during the First Republic as fighters for Latvia’s independence). In figural painting, depiction of everyday life became very important. Biruta Baumane, Rita Valnere, Džemma Skulme, Vilis Ozols, Imants Vecozols, Ojārs Ābols, representatives of the so-called “rough style,” each took a different painterly approach yet all of them maintained high artistic standards and served as a bridge between the art of the first and the second halves of the 20th century.