SILVIJA GROSA JŪGENDSTILA PERIODA PLASTISKAIS UN ...

publication by Arend Bergholtz. This author has managed to expand on the
information about what the workshop achieved (see Chapters IV and V). Wassil &
Co. shut down sometime around 1906, when fashion trends underwent a radical
change. There was less demand for façades with décor full of plastic motifs. This
suggests that such motifs were the main area of activity for the workshop.
II.3.1.4. The Lotze & Stoll and the Ferdinand Vlassák workshops
The sculptural workshop of Lotze & Stoll appeared in Rīga no later than
in 1902, and it continued its work until the end of the period that is described here.
Lotze & Stoll produced lots of décor for façades and interiors. In 1909, at an
exhibition in Rostov on the Don, the company received two gold medals. Nothing
more is known about the two sculptors or those who worked with them. According
to Arend Bergholtz, the company produced décor for the building at Tallinas Street
23. He went on to say that judging from some of the specifics of the décor,
including floral motifs and similar elements of stylisation, several other buildings
may perhaps also be attributed to the two sculptors (see Chapters IV and V).
The sculptural workshop of Ferdinand Vlassák was established in Rīga
around 1906. In classified advertisements, the company offered all types of décor
for interiors and façades. It appears to have been one of the largest workshops of
its kind in Rīga between 1906 and 1914. Vlassák was a Hungarian by birth, and
we know that Rihards Maurs worked in his workshop between 1907 and 1910.
Vlassák took part in a competition to find the sculptor for a monument to Tsar
Peter the Great in Rīga. Buildings on which his workshop worked include the one
at Smilšu Street 1/3, which was initially built for an insurance company (the
architect was Nikolai Proskurnyin (Николай Проскурнин)). The building presents
an allegorical depiction of Fortune. Vlassák’s workshop also provided plastic
décor for the so-called Boguslavskiy building at Alberta street 2a, which was
designed by Mikhail Eisenstein in 1906. It is possible, true, that the décor of the
building in question was actually the work of more than one sculptural workshop.
At least in the early period of Art Nouveau, according to Arend Bergholtz, that was
nothing unusual.
II.3.2. Painting, stained glass, decorative ceramics and stucco workshops and
companies
Decorative painting was particularly popular during the period that is
discussed here, but it is very difficult to study its role in interior design in any
detail, because available materials are very fragmented indeed. During the 19 th
century, and particularly at its end, there was a fairly active process of separating
professional academic art from crafts. At the turn of the 19 th and 20 th centuries, the
system of professional guilds was no longer particularly influential in most areas of
the crafts, although there were also exceptions – stained glass, for instance.
Shortly before the turn of the centuries and early in the 20 th century, decorative
interior paintings, which were very complicated projects for artists, were in high
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