A cross-eyed girl from Meteliai

The painting A cross-eyed girl from Meteliai by Antanas Žmuidzinavičius (1876–1966), which was shown in exhibitions of work by members of the Lithuanian Art Society in Kaunas and Riga in 1927 and 1928, was well received and was reproduced more than once in the Lithuanian and Latvian press. However, the artist fell foul of the mother of Dopkė, the Jewish girl from the village of Meteliai whom he portrayed, and was eventually obliged to pay for her strabismus operation. In his memoirs entitled ‘The Painter’s Palette and Life’ (Vilnius, 1961, pp. 315–316), Žmuidzinavičius wrote about this painting, and the problem that arose when the work was put on show.

Žmuidzinavičius loved plein-air painting. On his visit to Meteliai, while he was looking for picturesque locations, he was often followed by children, and one of them, the 15-year-old Dopkė, even became his model. ‘Whenever I went out to paint, Dopkė would insist on coming along and carrying my easel,’ the artist wrote in his memoirs. ‘While I was painting, she would put the tops back on my tubes of paint, and sing. Dopkė was cross-eyed, and it suited her. I painted her little head.’ When the painting appeared in the press and was shown at exhibitions, a lawyer friend warned the artist that the mother of the girl was planning to sue him, for he had ‘discredited the good name of their family, and publicly, in the eyes of the entire country, belittled her daughter Dopkė, by showing everyone that she was cross-eyed, so who would want to marry her?’ The story had a happy ending, as the famous interwar doctor Juozas Nemeikša successfully performed a strabismus operation on Dopkė’s eyes. According to Žmuidzinavičius, after the operation, Dopkė married and had a family, but on meeting the artist, she kept asking: ‘Did you really have to put me in the papers?’

Text authors Dovilė Barcytė and Ieva Burbaitė

Source: Law firm Valiunas Ellex art album KAUNAS–VILNIUS / 1918–1945 (2021). Compilers and text authors Dovilė Barcytė and Ieva Burbaitė
Expositions: “Palette and Life”, 27 October 2017 – 29 January 2017,  A. Žmuidzinavičius Creations and Collections Museum (V. Putvinskio St. 64, Kaunas). Curator of the exhibition: Jurgita Rimkutė-Vainiuvienė; "1918-1945 / Kaunas-Vilnius", 27 August 2020 – 21 August 2021, Lithuanian Art Centre TARTLE (Užupio St. 40, Vilnius). Curators Dovilė Barcytė and Ieva Burbaitė.

The painting A cross-eyed girl from Meteliai by Antanas Žmuidzinavičius (1876–1966), which was shown in exhibitions of work by members of the Lithuanian Art Society in Kaunas and Riga in 1927 and 1928, was well received and was reproduced more than once in the Lithuanian and Latvian press. However, the artist fell foul of the mother of Dopkė, the Jewish girl from the village of Meteliai whom he portrayed, and was eventually obliged to pay for her strabismus operation. In his memoirs entitled ‘The Painter’s Palette and Life’ (Vilnius, 1961, pp. 315–316), Žmuidzinavičius wrote about this painting, and the problem that arose when the work was put on show.

Žmuidzinavičius loved plein-air painting. On his visit to Meteliai, while he was looking for picturesque locations, he was often followed by children, and one of them, the 15-year-old Dopkė, even became his model. ‘Whenever I went out to paint, Dopkė would insist on coming along and carrying my easel,’ the artist wrote in his memoirs. ‘While I was painting, she would put the tops back on my tubes of paint, and sing. Dopkė was cross-eyed, and it suited her. I painted her little head.’ When the painting appeared in the press and was shown at exhibitions, a lawyer friend warned the artist that the mother of the girl was planning to sue him, for he had ‘discredited the good name of their family, and publicly, in the eyes of the entire country, belittled her daughter Dopkė, by showing everyone that she was cross-eyed, so who would want to marry her?’ The story had a happy ending, as the famous interwar doctor Juozas Nemeikša successfully performed a strabismus operation on Dopkė’s eyes. According to Žmuidzinavičius, after the operation, Dopkė married and had a family, but on meeting the artist, she kept asking: ‘Did you really have to put me in the papers?’

Text authors Dovilė Barcytė and Ieva Burbaitė

Source: Law firm Valiunas Ellex art album KAUNAS–VILNIUS / 1918–1945 (2021). Compilers and text authors Dovilė Barcytė and Ieva Burbaitė
Expositions: “Palette and Life”, 27 October 2017 – 29 January 2017,  A. Žmuidzinavičius Creations and Collections Museum (V. Putvinskio St. 64, Kaunas). Curator of the exhibition: Jurgita Rimkutė-Vainiuvienė; "1918-1945 / Kaunas-Vilnius", 27 August 2020 – 21 August 2021, Lithuanian Art Centre TARTLE (Užupio St. 40, Vilnius). Curators Dovilė Barcytė and Ieva Burbaitė.