Antanas Samuolis

The White Apple Tree dates from 1932, the year a group of young painters in Kaunas, then Lithuania's capital, founded the association Ars, with Antanas Samuolis among its members. They wanted a modern, expressive Lithuanian art with roots in folk tradition, and Samuolis became one of the leading figures of Lithuanian Expressionism.

Born in 1899 in the village of Puišiai, he studied at the Kaunas Art School under the painter Justinas Vienožinskis until 1929. Lithuanian critics describe his work as poetry mixed with drama, in figure scenes such as Poverty and Woman with Child, and in dramatic landscapes and still lifes. He worked in a small wooden house in the Žaliakalnis district of Kaunas, furnished with little more than a bed, a stool and a table.

In 1939 he went to Switzerland for medical treatment. He died in February 1942 in Leysin, an Alpine town known for its sanatoriums, and the site of his grave is unknown.