Since Estonia’s main art school operated in Tartu, plus most Estonian artists lived or worked there, Tartu was central for Estonian art life from the beginning of that art life in the early 20th century until 1945. Therefore, depictions of Tartu create a narrative of its own in Estonian art history, whereas Tartu was mostly viewed as if it were an ancient city outside of modernity. Endel Kõks (1912–1983), born and raised in Tartu, painted a large view of Tartu in 1938, depicting Tartu as a sort of parallel city to Athens: a unique city structure with religious buildings on its hilltop, and no signs of modern times on its streets. But six years later, his new view of Tartu looks completely different: ruins of houses can be seen at the centre of the painting, as Tartu was heavily bombed during the Second World War. Nevertheless, Kõks does not depict demolished Tartu as a tragedy. In his choice of colours, brushwork, motif, etc, clear traces of Estonian painting traditions can be seen, where the search for harmony played an integral part.  Another chapter of depicting Tartu began in the 1940s, when Tartu had largely been destroyed. Especially the centre of Tartu was wiped out and the flavour of standing outside of modern times was therefore gone. There are tens and tens of paintings where ruins of Tartu can be seen – the acropolis had turned into a necropolis, a city of the dead. Nevertheless, the way artists saw Tartu changed only a little. The moment of destruction was carefully avoided and only a handful of paintings are known where we see planes flying and Tartu burning. Corpses are always removed from the streets when an artist starts to document the scale of the catastrophe. In that way, even a kind of romantic attitude infiltrates their works. Both outside (titles) and inside the works, aesthetic values are much more appreciated than historic truthfulness. Even if we see ruins, we do not see death and destruction, but rather idyllic and somehow ancient cityscapes without any traces of war. Aesthetics was used as a tool in order to emphasise that Tartu belongs to the fairytale-like realm of eternity and the everlasting, without being subject to everyday changes. Of course, politics also kicked in. Although artists avoided any kind of political messages in the periods when Estonia was occupied by different regimes, the regimes themselves started using those tragedy panoramas as propaganda. German officials were not overly keen to do so, but the first Soviet years saw a sudden interest in such paintings. Exhibitions were held where views of demolished Tartu always played an important role, which message-wise was confusing, as the Soviets themselves were responsible for most of the destruction. Therefore, it can be seen as an attempt to rephrase the historical blame and put it on Germans. In contrast to the tragedy for which Germans were allegedly to be blamed, the paintings were exhibited in places where destroyed Tartu was being restored. The Soviet regime was therefore depicted as the one who after the catastrophe caused by the Germans rebuilt the city. This sudden interest soon diminished. Images of Tartu were first replaced by images of destroyed Tallinn, and soon thereafter almost completely forgotten. The works by Hilda Kamdron (1900–1972) form a unique chapter in this context. She was one of the most talented students at the Pallas Art School, whose very realistic and detailed watercolours and graphic prints were highly praised. In the 1940s, she suddenly started drawing Tartu, and almost obsessively, walking around the same areas and depicting what was left of Tartu. Her black and white drawings are far from any sort of attempt to depict beauty. Instead, they show Tartu as a ghost city without any hope for normal life. On some works she added the text ‘War is damned’, which was an unprecedented political step. Her works were never exhibited and Kamdron was soon brushed aside. She died in poor conditions, as her house burned down together with her and most of her works.