Petras Stauskas (1919-2003) was born on June 20, 1919 in Tolovka village, Samara county (Russia), where his parents were expatriated due to the fact that the great-grandmother of the artist Rožė Stauskaitė participated in the upheaval of 1863.
In 1922, the family of Stauskai returned to Zarasai region, Lithuania. P.Stauskas went to primary school in Dusetos, pro-gymnasium - in Antalieptė and graduated from Rokiškis J. Tumas-Vaižgantas gymnasium in 1939 where he had a wonderful teacher of painting Pranas Simanavičius between years 1935-1939.
Later P. Stauskas attended the Military School (along with the painter Algirdas Petrulis), in 1940 he passed the entrance examinations to Kaunas Art Institute. After the Military School was moved to Vilnius, he started studying at Vilnius Art Academy.
The young artist painted well; therefore, he was accepted to the second course at once. However, exile made him discontinue the art studies on the morning of June 14, 1941. At first he was brought to Starobilsk, and when the war started – to the other side of Ural, he was left in prisons of Gari region, Sverdlovsk county. There were many Lithuanian intellectuals there, several Lithuanian painters – Vytautas Bičiūnas, Petras Krivickas and Adomas Smetona – were imprisoned in the same establishment.
Petras Stauskas was released on March 11, 1943 and was soon mobilised to the 16th Lithuanian division. He participated in war actions near Katytės and was injured near Tilžė. In 1945, Petras Stauskas appeared in Mandzuria, where the SSSR prepared for the war with Japan.
In 1946, the artist was demobilised as the second-year student and continued his art studies in Vilnius. His lecturers were J. Vienožinskis, P. Aleksandravičius, A. Gudaitis, V. Drėma, and others. P.Stauskas graduated from the academy in 1950 and started working as the Chairman of Art Department of Kaunas District.
In March of 1951, Petras Stauskas became the Director of M.K. Čiurlionis Art Museum and occupied the post till March 15, 1988. Even though the museum was an ideological institution and worked under the conditions of strict control, it remained one of the most important repositories of Lithuanian cultural and artistic heritage thanks to the efforts of Petras Stauskas. The museum succeeded to preserve the biggest part of the accumulated wealth and increased the collections markedly.
Petras Stauskas never left his profession. From 1952 he actively participated in exhibitions, he was a master of portraits. The lightness and masterly technique of his watercolour paintings ensures him the place among the best Lithuanian water-colourists. The watercolour works of Petras Stauskas are more picturesque and freer than the ones of his predecessors, less attention is paid to the drawing in them, but there is more respect to the signs of a brush and free painting.
Petras Stauskas was the Chairman of the Lithuanian Painters’ Union, Kaunas Branch between 1963-1977 and organised a number of one-man exhibitions in 1964, 1969, 1979, 1985, and 1999.
