Pranas Domšaitis Gallery

Pranas Domšaitis gallery is located on Liepų Street in the historical part of Klaipėda city. Before the reconstruction in 1970-ies, the complex consisted of 4 separate 19th century buildings – 29, 31, 33, 35   Liepų St., built at the end of the 19^th and beginning of the 20th centuries. The buildings at 31 and 33 Liepų St. belonged to an ophthalmologist. He established an eye clinic in the first building, and the second one was for residential purposes. The building, located at 35 Liepų St., at the beginning of the 20^th century belonged to the company “Adler Werk G”,  and later to Georg Schneider. Part of the premises was used for residential purposes; the other part was used for offices. The buildings at 31, 33 and 35  Liepų St. with authentic facades of historicism and folk architecture reflect the characteristic forms of the old Klaipėda architecture and are included in the local register of immovable cultural values.

After World War II, all the buildings were nationalized and families were settled in.  The house at 35 Liepų St.  originally housed a kindergarten, and in 1971 the building was transferred to the Ministry of Culture. On June 1, 1973, a branch of the Lithuanian National Art Museum – Klaipėda Picture Gallery was opened there. With the efforts of architect Zigmas Rutkauskas and interior designer Kazimieras Miežinis, the structure of the interior spaces of the building and the authentic staircase, were preserved when designing the gallery. A few years later, during the expansion of the gallery expositions, three more buildings (33, 31, 29 Liepų str.) were added to the ensemble. A see-through access to the gallery premises was created between the historical buildings. A new, 1,800 m² exhibition space was opened to visitors in 1978. After demolishing the worthless outbuildings on the side of the yard, an extension to the building was designed for expositions and exhibitions. Its arrangement in the plan created closed outdoor spaces – courtyards for exhibitions and relaxation of visitors. The ground floor of this extension is glassed and allows the visitor to view both courtyards of the gallery from the inside. The gallery exhibited works of Lithuanian old and contemporary fine art:  Western European and Russian paintings from the 19th to the beginning of the 20th centuries, and the small courtyard was decorated with mosaics and sculptures. In 1990, gallery expositions were updated. On July 26, 2001 in the oldest part of the gallery (35 Liepų Street) a permanent exhibition of the works of the painter Pranas Domšaitis (1880–1965) was opened. It is the largest collection of the painter’s works in the world preserved by LNAM: 665 oil paintings, pastels, watercolors, drawings, prints. It is  a gift to Lithuania from the Lithuanian Foundation (USA). In 2004, in commemoration of the expressionist painter P. Domšaitis, the Klaipėda picture gallery was named after Pranas Domšaitis.  The buildings were last renovated in 2011.