The Latvian Museum of Art

- 'the Latvian Museum of Art is the richest depository of the national art in Latvia. Its collections have more than 52 000 works of art reflecting the development of professional art in the Baltic area and Latvia from the middle of the 18th century to the present day. They also present episodes of Russian art from the 16th century to the first half of the 20th century.'

- This art collection is kept in an old mansion house in central Riga. From the outside the size and vastness of the building is deceptive. When you first walk in, you are greeted by an enormous central flight of stairs trailing off to either side. The first stage of the exhibit is to the right and you are watched intensively by wardens as you make your way through all the rooms of artwork...almost a bit too much, as if they are waiting for you to do something wrong! Suprisingly, in amongst the slightly peeling paintwork and cracked windows, some of the work is laser sensitive and sets off a very loud buzzing if an annoying American teen gets too close...or anyone else trying to push their luck.

-Downstairs the work is very representative of traditional Latvian and Russian artwork...with dark, dank, often depressing palettes of colour and typical scenes of the condition of life at the time. Although, here and there, there are also some paintings that stand out as a breath of fresh air, as the artists have managed to find beauty in their surroundings.

-Upstairs the work is more modern, with a heavy focus on bright bold flowers and landscape scenes. There is no complex lighting in this art museum, just large windows and masses of natural light pouring through, highlighting the work with great rays of light. Overall this adds to a great sense of tone of the area as you walk around, and you leave feeling a little uplifted at the beauty and skill of the work you have just seen...which makes a change from being exposed to so much 'Modern Art' that you usually expect.

-I definitely recommend making a visit to see this small museum if you ever find yourself in Riga with an odd hour to spend.