On 28 April 1896, Romans Suta was born in Dzērbene Parish, Cēsis District – one of the most vivid pioneers of Latvian classical modernism. He was a painter, graphic artist, porcelain painter, stage designer and critic who moved from the Riga Artists’ Group to the legendary porcelain workshop “Baltars”. Suta’s works fused Cubist geometry, motifs from folk life and the cosmopolitan spirit of 20th-century European art.

Suta belonged to the generation that, after the First World War, sought to pull Latvian art out of provincial confines and bring it into dialogue with the avant-garde of Paris, Berlin and Moscow. “Baltars” porcelain became one of the most recognizable high points of Latvian decorative art.