The Rosengartens in Riga before WWII

Naomi Alexander’s The Rosengartens in Riga before WWII (1981) depicts a quiet family gathering, a seemingly ordinary tea party, yet imbued with a sense of foreboding. The Rosengarten family, captured just days before the outbreak of World War II, sit at a table, their fates unknowingly sealed. Some would choose to stay, believing life would improve, while others contemplated escape. Those who remained, including Alexander’s husband’s aunt, were later executed—a tragic fate that looms over the painting’s domestic simplicity. The muted, sepia-toned palette mimics an aged photograph, evoking nostalgia and the fragility of memory. The loose brushwork and blurred facial features transform the figures into spectral presences, representing not just this one family but countless others faced with impossible choices. The painting is a testament to the echoes of history, an intimate moment framed by a backdrop of displacement, survival, and remembrance. 

The painting relates closely to Alexander’s artist residency in Lithuania in 2001, which led to the project “Once Upon a Time in Lithuania”. On this experience she wrote: “I felt intensely the presence of the Jews that once lived there, the homes they lived in, the things they must have done and the places they visited, and there is a sense that I am commemorating their lives here”.