Pranas Domsaitis Gallery, Klaipeda

This is a wonderful gallery, a reason for every art lover to come to Klaipeda. There are numerous paintings by Pranas Domsaitis here but also a number of other paintings by (mostly German) painters from the region, such as Arthur Degner, Ernst Mollenhauer, Karl Eulenstein and others. A lot of credit has to be given to the museum to display these artists, a number of which never achieved the fame they deserved. I have one major complaint, however. The museum seems to pretend that the German heritage of its paintings does not exist. Given that the vast majority of the painters are German you would at least expect to see the titles of the works displayed in German and the places of birth (plus places of death where appropriate) with their old German names. Similarly, Pranas Domsaitis is displayed as a purely Lithuanian artist and no explanation is given why he signed his earlier paintings with his German name Franz Domscheit. Explaining the painter`s interesting lifestory would not take him away from Lithuania! And one lesser complaint: I wish there was an assocation of friends of the museum which could contribute to its upkeep. I would be delighted to join.

A wonderful permanent exhibition of Lithuania Minor artists, as well as great visiting exhibitions. A very pleasant two or three hours to spend especially on a rainy day.