The sculpture “Fisherman’s daughters”

In 1982, an impressive 4-meter-high sculptural composition “Fisherman’s Daughters” was erected on the dunes near the gates of the port of Šventoji. It depicts three long-haired girls looking out to sea, waiting for their father to return from fishing.
The author is Zuzana Pranaitytė. In 2016, an article was published in the “Bendraukime” column of the daily newspaper “Lietuvos rytas,” revealing that the work of art erected in the dunes in 1982 has another side. The niece of the sculpture’s author, Zuzana Pranaitytė, Lina Wahl, who lives abroad, told the editorial office that her aunt had revealed to her that the sculpture “Fisherman’s Daughters” was not about fishermen’s daughters at all, but the three Baltic states, with Lithuania in the middle. The countries are looking to the West for help in freeing themselves from Soviet occupation. The sculpture standing on the dunes of Šventoji is the work that demanded the most effort from the artist. According to her niece, her aunt had to make nine sketches before she was satisfied. “I remember my aunt making sketches for “The Fisherman’s Daughters.” There were many of them in her studio near the Vilnelė River. I liked being there. As a teenager, I posed for my aunt while she was sculpting these figures. I stood on a scaffold while my aunt sculpted the legs and fingers of the “daughters.” She gave me some clay so I wouldn’t get bored. Then they were taken to Leningrad, where they were cast in metal,” said the woman.