Supported by Prince Ogiński's 'scholarship' Ciurlionis studied piano and composition at Warsaw Conservatory (now Fryderyk Chopin University of Music) from 1894 to 1899.
Ciurlionis studied drawing at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw from 1904 to 1906, and became a friend with Polish composer and painter Eugeniusz Morawski-Dąbrowa.
Gallery of Mikalojus Čiurlionis
Grassistraße 8, 04107 Leipzig, Germany
Ciurlionis attended composition lectures at the Leipzig Conservatory (now the University of Music and Theatre Leipzig) from 1901 to 1902.
Supported by Prince Ogiński's 'scholarship' Ciurlionis studied piano and composition at Warsaw Conservatory (now Fryderyk Chopin University of Music) from 1894 to 1899.
Ciurlionis studied drawing at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw from 1904 to 1906, and became a friend with Polish composer and painter Eugeniusz Morawski-Dąbrowa.
Mikalojus Čiurlionis was a Lithuanian composer, writer and painter. He was a representative of the fin de siècle epoch and contributed to symbolism and art nouveau. He has been considered one of the pioneers of abstract art in Europe.
During his short life, Čiurlionis composed about 400 pieces of music and created about 300 paintings, as well as many literary works and poems.
Background
Mikalojus Čiurlionis was born on September 22, 1875 in Senoji Varėna, a town in southeastern Lithuania that at the time was in the Russian Empire (now Alytus County, Lithuania). He was the oldest of nine children of his father, Konstantinas Čiurlionis, and his mother, Adelė Marija Magdalena Radmanaitė-Čiurlionienė, who was descended from a Lutheran family of Bavarian origin.
Like many educated Lithuanians of the time, Čiurlionis's family spoke Polish. In 1878, his family moved to Druskininkai, 30 mi. (50 km) away, where his father went on to be the town organist.
Education
Mikalojus Čiurlionis completed the elementary school in Druskininkai. Taught by his father, he played the piano and organ very well.
Čiurlionis went to study at the musical school of Polish Prince Michał Ogiński in Plungė, where he learned to play several instruments, in particular the flute, from 1889 to 1893.
Supported by Prince Ogiński's 'scholarship' Čiurlionis studied piano and composition at Warsaw Conservatory (now Fryderyk Chopin University of Music) from 1894 to 1899. For his graduation, in 1899, he wrote a cantata for mixed chorus and symphonic orchestra titled De Profundis, with the guidance of the composer Zygmunt Noskowski. Later he attended composition lectures at the Leipzig Conservatory (now the University of Music and Theatre Leipzig) from 1901 to 1902.
He returned to Warsaw in 1902 and studied drawing at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw from 1904 to 1906, and became a friend with Polish composer and painter Eugeniusz Morawski-Dąbrowa.
In autumn 1899 - spring 1901, Čiurlionis lived in Warsaw giving private lessons in order to support himself and his brother Povilas who has entered the Institute of Music. He rejected an offer to take the position of the conductor of the Lublin Music Society’s choir and orchestra.
In 1900 Čiurlionis composed Polonaise for wind orchestra. His first publication was the Nocturne in F-sharp minor in Meloman (No. 8). Later Čiurlionis composed the symphonic poem "In the Forest" and dedicated it to his friend E. Morawski.
From 1901 to 1902 Čiurlionis lived in Leipzig. During his Leipzig period, he composed the symphonic overture Kęstutis, a string quartet in four movements, canons and fugues including Sanctus and Kyrie for mixed choir. He also did some drawing.
During autumn 1902 - early 1904, Čiurlionis lived in Warsaw. By giving private lessons, he supported his younger brothers continuing their education there.
In the autumn of 1903, he painted "Funeral Symphony", a cycle of seven paintings. He began composing the symphonic poem "The Sea". In order to dedicate himself fully to art studies, he turned down Emili Młynarski’s proposal to teach at the Warsaw Institute of Music.
Čiurlionis composed variation cycles for piano Sefaa Esec and Besacas in 1904.
Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis began to identify himself as a Lithuanian after the 1905 Russian Revolution. He was one of the initiators of, and a participant in, the First Exhibition of Lithuanian Art in 1907 at Vileišis Palace, Vilnius.
In summer 1905, he spent his vacation with the Wolman family in Anapa by the Black Sea. He travelled in the Caucasus, painted and took photographs. Since autumn 1905, Čiurlionis had lived in Warsaw with his brother Stasys, and made a living by giving private lessons. He also began leading the choir of the Warsaw Lithuanians’ Society for Mutual Assistance.
At the end of 1905, Čiurlionis went to the artists’ residence in Ribiniškės (Latvia), which was funded by the patron of art E. Kerbedienė.
From the beginning of 1906, he lived in Druskininkai, arranged Lithuanian folk songs. In a letter to his brother Povilas, he wrote that has decided to "dedicate all his past and future works to Lithuania".
Čiurlionis took part in an exhibition of works by the students of the Warsaw School of Art in St Petersburg, with his cycles Creation of the World, A Day and Storm, the diptych Rex (it has not survived), and others in May 1906. Art critics took note of his extraordinary paintings.
During summer - autumn 1906, he took part in a plein-air organised by a school in Istebna (in the Carpathians, then under Austrian rule). The same year, he spent the summer in Krynitsa with the Wolman family. At the time he wrote his literary Letters to Dievdurakėlis.
Supported by Bronislawa Wolman, he traveled to Europe visiting Prague, Dresden, Nuremberg, Munich and Vienna. He also received an invitation to participate in the First Exhibition of Lithuanian Art.
In early 1907, Čiurlionis sent his works to the First Exhibition of Lithuanian Art in Vilnius and helped to organize it. For the exhibition he presented the cycles Creation of the World and Storm, triptych Rex, and eight fluor etchings (33 works in all).
Čiurlionis completed the orchestration of the symphonic poem The Sea and started working on the new symphonic poem Creation of the World. In the first half of the year he painted 50 works.
In the autumn, he moved to Vilnius, participated in the constituent assembly of the Society of the Lithuanian Art and was elected to its executive board.
The same year he became acquainted with Sofija Kymantaitė (1886-1958), an art critic. Through this association, Čiurlionis learned to speak better Lithuanian.
During winter - spring 1908, Čiurlionis lived in Vilnius, led the Vilniaus Kanklės choir. He gave a concert with the choir and as a pianist. Assisted by Sofija Kymantaitė, Petras Rimša and several other enthusiasts, he put on the Second Exhibition of the Lithuanian Art in Vilnius and Kaunas, and created the cover design for its catalog and a poster. He displayed more than 60 of his latest works in the exhibition.
The same year, he joined the discussions in Viltis regarding the founding of the House of the Nation, campaigned to raise the funds for its establishment, and promised to donate all his works to it.
At the end of 1909, he traveled to St. Petersburg, where he exhibited some of his paintings. On Christmas Eve, Čiurlionis fell into a profound depression and at the beginning of 1910 was hospitalized in a psychiatric hospital "Czerwony Dwór" (Red Manor) in Marki, Poland, northeast of Warsaw. While a patient there, he died of pneumonia in 1911 at 35 years of age.
The precise number of Čiurlionis musical compositions is not known - a substantial part of his manuscripts did not survive, while others, assumingly, perished in the fire during the war, or were lost. The ones available for us today include sketches, rough drafts, and fragments of his musical ideas. The nature of the archive determined the fact that Čiurlionis’ works were finally published only a hundred years after the composer’s death.
Čiurlionis was a musical prodigy: he could play by ear at age three and could sight-read music freely by age seven.
Moreover, Čiurlionis felt that he was a synesthete; that is, he perceived colors and music simultaneously. Many of his paintings bear the names of musical pieces: sonatas, fugues, and preludes.
Interests
Lithuanian culture and politics
Writers
Adam Mickiewicz, Juliusz Słowacki, Bolesław Prus, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Friedrich Nietzsche and Leo Tolstoy
Music & Bands
Handel, Tchaikovsky, Wagner and Liszt
Connections
In about 1894-1899, Čiurlionis was a frequent guest at his friend Eugeniusz Morawski’s home, where he met and fell in love with Eugeniusz’s sister Maria. But, their romance did not lead to marriage. Maria’s father, having noticed their feelings, took haste to marry off his daughter to another suitor.
In 1907, Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis became acquainted with Sofija Kymantaitė (1886-1958), an art critic. Early in 1909, they married. On June 12, 1910, Čiurlionis’ daughter Danutė was born.