Official Photo of Estonian President Ülle Madise Published

The Estonian president's office has published the official photograph of the country's new president, Ülle Madise. The photographer is Toomas Volkmann. The image shows the presidential flag of Estonia alongside a work by Estonian artist Tarrvi Laamann, titled "Rooster or Hen, Young or Old" (Kukk või kana, noor või vana). The piece is a triptych, a painting made up of three parts.

According to Volkmann, the photo differs in many ways from the customary official presidential portraits seen around the world. The idea came from Madise herself, who wanted Laamann's painting as the backdrop. Such portraits usually emphasise two elements: national symbols such as a flag or coat of arms, and the figure of the president, often set in a historic interior that underlines status. Here the first two elements follow the traditional scheme, but the interior has been deliberately transformed into an expression of her culture-oriented outlook. The photo is divided into three parts of equal significance which, read from left to right, symbolise the state, the president and culture.

History of the flag

The presidential flag is one of the symbols of Estonia's historical and legal continuity. In 1944, schoolchildren saved from the occupying authorities a flag that had flown at Kadriorg during the government of Otto Tief. In 2026 that flag returned to Estonia from Australia and is now kept at the Estonian National Museum.

The artist's story

Laamann recalls playing a game called "Rooster or Hen, Young or Old" with common bentgrass (Agrostis capillaris) as a child. Later, at an art residency in Italy, he found that the seemingly familiar "grass", giant reed (Arundo donax), can grow as tall as five metres. The works were created in 2017 at the residency of the Finnish Väinö Tanner Foundation in the ancient Italian town of Mazzano Romano, 35 kilometres from Rome. The artist says he could never have imagined the president choosing this work as the background for her official photograph.