The son of the writer Napoleon Rouba, Michał Rouba (1893–1941) from Vilnius, joined the group of young artists that gathered round Ferdynand Ruszczyc while he was still a pupil at a gymnasium. He studied at Cracow Academy of Art between 1912 and 1914, and was one of the first students in the Art Department at Stephen Báthory University. He lived on Tilto Street in Vilnius, and during the interwar period he lectured at the school of drawing of the Vilnius Society of Artists and the gymnasium of the Sisters of Nazareth. He was an active founder of the Vilnius Society of Artists in 1921, and in the interwar period he participated in many exhibitions, in Vilnius, Poland and Western Europe. He loved his native city, and painted romanticised views of it and its environs that are characteristic of Post-Impressionism and the Post-Cubist styling of shapes. He also portrayed Vilnius themes in his woodcuts and book designs. This drawing of the Gates of Dawn was made by Rouba for the cover of the book Gośćiom Wilna ku pamięci (To Guests of Vilnius to Remember) by the poet Czesław Jankowski and the photographer Jan Bułhak. The book, which showed the city in a poetic way, was published in 1927 to mark the coronation of the picture of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The chapel, drawn expressively in pen and ink, is like a visiting card of Vilnius.
Source: Law firm Valiunas Ellex art album
VILNIUS. TOPOPHILIA I (2014). Compiler and author Laima Laučkaitė
