A precious gift to the Art Museum of Estonia: the von Ramm family portraits have been added to the museum’s collection

On Monday, 19 August, members of the von Ramm family donated three very interesting Baltic German family portraits to the collection of the Art Museum of Estonia. The portraits depict the 18th century nobles Karl Adolf von Ramm, Margarete Elisabeth von Ramm (née Stael von Holstein) and Hedwig Ulrike von Ramm (née von Delwig).

The portraits may have come from either the Risti or the Hatu manor in Harju County, both of which belonged to the von Mohrenschildt family, who were related to the von Ramms by marriage. In 2016, the von Mohrenschildt family, now living in Wolfsberg, Austria, handed the paintings over to the then owner of the Padise manor, Karl von Ramm, to be returned to their birthplace in Estonia. Karl von Ramm, together with his father, Professor Olaf Thomas von Ramm, owned the Padise manor from 1998 to 2020, and took the initiative to renovate the manor, opening a restaurant and guest-house.

Throughout the past year, the Art Museum of Estonia has been in contact with the owners of the family portraits and introduced the possibilities of preserving, restoring and exhibiting the paintings. “On behalf of the Art Museum of Estonia, we are grateful to the von Ramm family for the trust they have placed in us, and to the other private owners for the beautiful gesture that shows the way forward, bringing a valuable and interesting addition to the Baltic German portraiture in Estonia’s public collections,” said Kadi Polli, the director of the Kumu Art Museum and a researcher of Baltic German art.