FAMOUS ARTISTOlav Maran

Olav Maran is an outstanding Estonian painter, an unrivalled master of the urban landscape and the pre-eminent painter of Tallinn. Over the course of decades, Maran has created views of the Old Town, Tallinn’s streets, squares, and courtyards that have become genuine classics of Estonian art. His works are executed in a realist manner with a subtle feeling for atmosphere, light, and architectural detail.

Each of Maran’s canvases is not simply a depiction of a building or a street but a transmission of the very spirit of the city: its ancient stones, its changeable sky, its distinctive mood at different times of day and season. Maran continues to work actively, adding new canvases to his extensive “painted chronicle” of the capital.

Olav Maran has created what is probably the most comprehensive painted chronicle of Tallinn in history. His paintings allow us to trace how the face of the city has changed over more than half a century. Some of the buildings and views he recorded no longer exist, lending his works an additional dimension of historical value. It is said that Maran knows every stone in Old Tallinn.