Artwork from the Ethnological Collections

The National Museum’s ethnological collections include dozens of works of art. The collections have been designed to record the Finnish way of life through objects rather than art. But why have works of art ended up in the collections? The answer is probably to be found in Fennomania or the Finnish nationalism that was influential in Finland in the 19th century. At that time, photography as a method of documentation was still a cumbersome process. Sometimes it was easier to paint and draw.

Fennomania and the preservation of Finnishness

Finnish nationalism, or Fennomania, emerged in the early 19th century in university circles. The need arose to maintain the Finnish language and culture, as Finland had been annexed to the Russian Grand Duchy in 1808. Finnish nationalism reached its peak in the 1870s. Its effects were seen, for example, in the collection and documentation of objects recording the Finnish way of life of students. As a result of the movement, the National Museum of Finland’s first ethnographic archive, image and artefact collections were created.

In 1876, the Finnish Universal Exhibition was held in Helsinki, where the Finnish way of life was presented not only through industry but also through pictures, art, objects and interiors. In addition to student unions, the Finnish Antiquarian Society’s expeditions also toured Finland to document the country. The collection and documentation work produced a large number of drawings and watercolours by artists. Documentation was also done on camera. However, at that time in the late 19th century, photography was a difficult and risky business. Cameras were still expensive and rare, and it was almost impossible to shoot indoors, for example, because of the lack of light. In many cases, the easiest way to capture the people and the interiors was to use paintings and drawings, to add colour and atmosphere.

In addition to the expeditions, many individual artists toured to record rural life. So-called quality image painting and peasant themes were in vogue in the visual arts, literature and music.

Quality image and the Düsseldorf School

Quality image painting takes its name from the word genre – type, quality, genus. The paintings show people as types, as representatives of their kind rather than individuals. Usually, the subject was familiar events from everyday life presented in a cosy, romanticised tone. The themes of rural and peasant life were very popular. Quality image painting came to Finland in the 1860s with the so-called Düsseldorf School painters who had studied in Germany. While the Düsseldorf School painters may have sketched outdoors, they finished their paintings indoors in their own studios. The end result was often meticulous and formulaic. There was a desire to make the pictures romantic and beautiful. Often, even Finnish landscapes or interiors look very Central European in their final version. Peasant painters began to move towards a more realistic style of painting towards the end of the decade. In art reviews, realism and the truthfulness of subject matter began to play the most important role.

The paintings I present below are works by artists of the Düsseldorf School, but they do not always look like it, because all but one of them are sketches. Only S. A. Keinänen's ‘Kehdossa’ (in a cradle) is a complete and definitive interpretation of the subject. As sketches, however, they better serve the purpose for which they were originally acquired for the collections. They are realistic and document their time well. They convey the atmosphere, colours and interiors in a way that would have been impossible to capture otherwise.

I will now introduce paintings by Arvid Liljelund (1844–1899), S. A. Keinänen (1841–1914) and Th. Waenerberg (1846–1917). None of these artists toured with the expeditions documenting Finnishness in the late 19th century, but each of them, travelling in Finland themselves, diligently recorded the Finnish rural lifestyle of the 1870s. Finally, I will present G. D. Budkowski's painting of Kymäläinen and Makkonen, as it is an excellent example of the recording of Finnishness in the early 19th century.

Two of the artists, Liljelund and Keinänen, came from Finnish-speaking working-class families. This was possible in Finnish society, which was growing prosperous in the late 19th century. In their own works, both depicted the Finnish rural way of life with precision and devotion.

The drawings and paintings from the trips of the student unions and Finnish Antiquarian Society can also be found in the Finnish Heritage Agency’s Picture Collection or at the link: drawings and watercolours by the expeditions. Artists on the expeditions included Albert Edelfelt, Gunnar Berndtson, Agathon Reinholm and Kaarlo Vuori. Many architects also made drawings of their travels. These included Armas Lindgren, Viktor Sucksdorff and Lars Sonck.

Arvid Liljelund (1844-1899)

Emanuel Arvid Liljelund was born on 20 January 1844 in Uusikaupunki to a Finnish-speaking master tailor’s family. The family’s income was rather modest and Arvid’s father wanted him to first study to become a tailor, only after which it would be possible to study to become an artist. After studying to be a tailor, Arvid studied at the Finnish Art Society’s School of Drawing in Turku 1863–1864 and in Helsinki 1864–1865. He continued his studies at the Düsseldorf Academy of Fine Arts in Germany between 1866 and 1869.

Liljelund worked as a teacher at an art school in Helsinki from 1869 to 1876 and later as a teacher and director of the Vyborg School of Drawing for Art Lovers from 1891 to 1899.

Liljelund was awarded the title of First-Class Artist by the St Petersburg Academy of Fine Arts. He painted accurate ethnographic descriptions of the interiors and people of rural homes. He made painting trips especially to the coast of Swedish-speaking Ostrobothnia, but also to other parts of Finland.

The works Puettu lutti (draped barn loft) and Tupainteriööri Ahvenanmaalla (cottage interior in Åland) were purchased for the ethnographic collections in 1899 from the estate of Arvid Liljelund. Very different in atmosphere and style, the painting Pirtti-interiööri (cabin interior) was donated to the collection in 1941. The signature of the work is different from that of the other two Liljelund paintings. Therefore the question is, is this Liljelund’s work at all?