Here is a short description of how body image is conveyed in Finnish art. This is what the students studies as part of their art lessons in autumn and winter 2015. This section focuses on the Finnish Golden Age in art, when the Finnish national art was shaped.
The Finnish Golden Age in art
In Finland, the period between years 1880 and 1910 is called The Finnish Golden Age in art. During this time, the Finnish art
was given its own, national shape. At the same time Finnish art reached a high
international level. Artists studied in Paris where they got to know the art of
painting outside. Inspired by this, artists started to depict their home
country, its people, nature and history in their paintings. Topics also
included the poor people in the society, people in the countryside and
Finland’s untouched forest sceneries. Through new topics, Finnish people
learned to notice the beauty and uniqueness of their home country. The art of
the Golden Age told stories of Finland and its history to the outside world as
well. Art was included when they wanted to show that Finland is a nation among
other nations. The most significant figure of this period was Akseli
Gallen-Kallela and other top artists such as Pekka Halonen, Albert Edelfelt,
Helene Schjerfbeck and Eero Järnefelt.
REALISM
In the Finnish art, the 1880s was the decade of Realism. Back then,
artists focused on depicting Finnish nature and countryside. This meant that
people and their body image were depicted in a very real way: men doing field work are
often depicted very muscular and athletic. On the other hand, the years of
famine in the 1880s manifest themselves in the paintings as stomachs swollen by
eating bread whose ingredients included pine bark because people couldn’t
afford enough regular flour in their bread. The old housewives are depicted as wrinkled and
round. During the period of Realism, bodies were depicted as they really were.
Nothing was hidden or glorified.
REALISM –
EXAMPLE 1:
Akseli Gallen-Kallela – Akka ja
kissa / The old woman and the cat (1885)
The model for this piece of art is an old woman
from Salo, where Gallen-Kallela started painting.
REALISM - EXAMPLE 2:
Eero Järnefelt – Raatajat rahanalaiset / Poor workers (1893)
Järnefelt painted this work in Lapinlahti. Realism is shown both in the realistic way of depicting the scenery and its contents. Tenant farmers without land of their own are burning the woods to transform them into a slash and burn field.
REALISM
- EXAMPLE 3:
Pekka Halonen – Niittomiehet / Scything men (1891)
Halonen
painted this piece in the same manner as French open-air paintings. He
depicts his peers doing their work. Pekka Halonen himself was a son of a farmer from Lapinlahti, and this picture was painted in Lapinlahti, too. The country scenery from Savo region and the
real people create almost a pious atmosphere in the painting despite the
laborious work. The model for the man sharpening his scythe was Halonen’s
younger brother Antti.
EXAMPLE 4: Albert Edelfelt - Eukko pärekoreineen / An
old woman with her basket made of shingles (1882)
Edelfelt painted a lot of beautiful women, but
the women didn’t represent any particular ideal of beauty. They were quite
individual female types. On the other
hand, the depictions of women varied according to the model’s age and social
status. The painting Eukko
pärekoreineen is one example of this kind of depictions. The model is
Edelfelts’ maid Tajta. The faithful servant is reduced into an anonymous woman.
She is a specimen of an old, unsexual and
worn-down woman. On the other hand, the style of the painting involves some
level of idolization of what a typical peasant woman was like.
SYMBOLISM
In the 1890s, the social art was replaced by individual
experiences and the emphasis on spiritual life. This art movement was called
Symbolism, where the artist’s task was to depict the big questions in life
metaphorically through symbols. For example Magnus Enckell and Hugo Simberg
were influenced by the Symbolism in Paris. The new influences were shown in
their work immediately.
SYMBOLISM – EXAMPLE 1:
Hugo Simberg - Köynnöksenkantajat- freskon yksityiskohta / The
carriers of a vine – a detail from a fresco
Simberg’s art was very
humane. He believed that people lived in a material world, amidst happiness,
sadness, guilt and death. In this fresco, 12 boys are carrying a rose vine,
which is the metaphor for life with its roses and thorns. The number of boys refers to the twelve apostles. The artist depicts people’s different ways to
deal with life in these boy figures. The body image conforms to the topic and
the deeper meanings. The boys are muscular and in a good shape, strong enough
to carry the heavy burden.
SYMBOLISM
– EXAMPLE 2: Hugo
Simberg - Köynnöksenkantajat- freskon yksityiskohta / The carriers of a vine - a detail from a fresco
Some of the boys carry the vine courageously, while others are picking
flowers and for some, the burden is too heavy.
ROMANTIC NATIONALISM
The Symbolism of Finnish artists soon transformed into Romantic
nationalism in the 1890s. Romantic nationalism means art emphasizing national
originality. When the Russian oppression increased, people wanted to defend the
rights of the Finns through art as well. Many artists travelled to Eastern
Finland and Karelia to find the original Finnish people and culture in the
1890s. This art movement is called Karelianism.
EXAMPLE 1: Akseli Gallen-Kallela
– Paanajärven paimenpoika / The shepherd of Paanajärvi (1892) (Romantic
nationalism)
EXAMPLE 2: Albert Edelfelt –
Kristus ja Mataleena / Christ and Madgalena (1890) (Karelianism)
In this picture, both the poetry from the Finnish national epic Kalevala
and the Bible are combined. Madgalena refuses to give water to a shepherd, whom
she recognizes to be Christ only after he tells her about all her secret acts.
Madgalena’s body image represents a young woman from Karelia. The model for
Christ was young Magnus Enckell.
EXAMPLE
3: Akseli Gallen-Kallela – Lemminkäisen äiti / Lemminkäinen’s mother (1897)
This work of art represents Gallen-Kallela’s symbolistic and plain
Kalevala phase. It depicts the pain of the mother who is mourning over the body
of his dead son Lemminkäinen, who died because of his defiance. It is set on
the beach of the river in the underworld. The mother is begging for a drop of
honey from a bee to revive his son. The rays of light promise some hope and
Lemminkäinen wakes up from the death. The model for the mother was the artist’s
own mother, who had been told so many sad news that she was about to burst into
tears.
More pure and bright colours as well as sunlight started to appear in
Finnish art at the beginning of the 1900s. Then, the art started to free itself
from the Russian political pressure and the heaviness of the Romantic
nationalism was set aside. Shape, light and colours were emphasized in
paintings.
EXAMPLE 1: Magnus Enckell – Poikia rannalla (1910) /
Boys on the beach
