Enchanting Nidden
The Museum Domburg’s winter and spring exhibition in 2025 is dedicated to the Lithuanian Artists’ Colony of Nidden, now known as Nida. Most of the works come from the collection of Alexander Popov and Jelena Kosinova, which has also been exhibited at the Cultural Museum Hotel L’esquisse in Barbizon (France), the Kunstmuseum in Ahrenshoop (Germany), and the Noord-Veluws Museum in Nunspeet, the Netherlands.
The current exhibition is supplemented by eleven works from a private Dutch collection. Together, they provide a wonderful picture of the magnificent Curonian Spit, the village of Nidden, which forms its centre, and the European context.
The Curonian Spit
Artists have been visiting the Curonian Spit since the 1850s. Many of them were students at the Königsberg Art Academy. They were attracted by the high dunes and beaches of the Lagoon and the Baltic Sea. Fishing life was central to their works.
After the turn of the century, the expressionist movement gained the upper hand, with famous artists such as Max Pechstein (1881-1955) and Karl Schmidt-RottluX (1884-1976), but after the First World War, much changed. When the German writer Thomas Mann (1875- 1955) had a summer house built in Nida in 1929-1930, the Curonian Spit was part of Lithuania, and in 1939 it became part of the Third Reich. From 1944 to 1990, Lithuania was a Soviet republic. After that, the way was open for new ties between East and West.
The Popov-Kosinova Collection
The exhibition comprises 65 of the more than 1,500 works – paintings and prints – from the Popov-Kosinova collection. They cover the period from the 1870s to the 1960s and mainly depict fishing life, fishing boats and the unique landscape.
