Arnold Vihvelin

Arnold Peeter Vihvelin (surname also spelled Vichvelin and Wihwelin; April 10, 1892 – April 20, 1962) was an Estonian printmaker and painter.

Early life and education Arnold Vihvelin was born in Rääbise, the son Hans Vihvelin (1845–1915) and Elisabeth Vihvelin (née Stamm; 1873–1967). His father, a forester for , collected folk songs and sent them to Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald. The family had its own library. The future artist started painting at the age six, following the example of his older cousin, who was a portrait painter.

In 1905, Vihvelin worked as a student at the Laiuse pharmacy. He graduated at the same time from . While he was earning a living as a draftsman in Tartu, he studied drawing and painting with in the evenings and attended Kristjan Raud's studio from 1906 to 1909. Vihvelin took part in the graphics competition held in Karlsruhe and won second place. In 1910, with a recommendation from Peter Barth (inspector of the Tartu secondary school) he entered the Imperial Society for the Encouragement of the Arts in Saint Petersburg and immediately passed the exam to enter the third year. and caricatures that were published in the satirical magazine Sädemed in 1926. In 1925, he created the compositions Ketsemani aed (The Garden of Gethsemane) and Colgata (Calvary) for the wing decorations of the altar painting of Saint Peter's Church in Tartu. During the interwar period, he was mainly known for compositions related to the Estonian War of Independence, although he also cultivated other genres. In the postwar period, he completely withdrew from artistic life, apparently fearing repression due to his work during the interwar period, and he did not publicly share the works he produced.