Edgars Vinters (Riga, 1919 - Riga, 2014) was a Latvian painter best known for his landscapes, although he also painted flowers and some urban scenes. His work, realist in character with a clear debt to Impressionism, is admired for its use of light and colour, and has been described as a source of inspiration for at least one generation of Latvian artists.
Born in Riga, the only child of a facade and decoration painter, he received his first pastel lessons from Voldemārs Irbe at the age of ten. From 1937 the painter Hugo Kārlis Grotuss encouraged him to abandon a darker phase and to use brighter tones. He studied at the Art Academy of Latvia until 1944, when he was drafted into the Latvian Legion. The following year he was taken prisoner by the Soviet Army. After returning to Riga in 1947 he taught art and drafting, and qualified as a teacher in 1949.
His medium moved from pencil and ink to oil, which remained his main medium, alongside watercolour and, in the 1970s, monotypes. He painted many works en plein air, and his Latvian landscapes of the seasons are known for their layering and soft blurs. During the Soviet period his work was shown mainly in Latvia, and it reached a wider audience after independence in 1991.