Jānis Tilbergs

From 1901 to 1909 Tilbergs studied under Dmitry Kardovsky at the Imperial Academy of Arts in Saint Petersburg, then the capital of the Russian Empire.

[1] Over his career, he exhibited at various international venues (Denmark, Sweden, Norway, France, England, et al.) as an ambassador of Latvian art and in one man shows in Riga (1934, 1960) and Tallinn (1961).

[3] Tilbergs' plaster monument to Taras Shevchenko (pictured), the greatest Ukrainian poet, artist and humanist, was dedicated on 1 December 1918.

This first ever Shevchenko monument was not later replaced by the bronze version, as was originally planned, and was dismantled in eight years as the plaster deteriorated in open air.

The Latvian lats coins struck in 1924–1926 carried the palm branch design by Tilbergs, a motive popular in Europe at the time.