Eero Järnefelt

This article is about the painter. For the diplomat, see Eero Järnefelt (diplomat).

Eero Järnefelt
Born	Erik Nikolai Järnefelt (1863-11-08)8 November 1863 Viipuri, Grand Duchy of Finland
Died	15 November 1937(1937-11-15) (aged 74) Helsinki, Finland
Nationality	Finnish
Known for	Painter

Erik "Eero" Nikolai Järnefelt (8 November 1863 – 15 November 1937) was a Finnish painter and art professor. He is best known for his portraits and landscapes of the area around Koli National Park, in the North Karelia region of Finland. He was a medal winner at the Paris Exposition Universelle of 1889 and 1900, taught art at the University of Helsinki and was chairman of the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts.

Biography

He was the son of General Alexander Järnefelt and Baroness Elisabeth Järnefelt (née Clodt von Jürgensburg). He came from a Swedish-speaking Finnophile family of artists, writers and composers descended from the Baltic aristocracy. Several of his eight siblings also became well-known: Kasper (a literary critic), Arvid (a judge and writer), Armas (a composer and conductor) and Aino (wife of Jean Sibelius).

Portrait of Järnefelt by Akseli Gallen-Kallela, 1888

After graduating from a private academy, he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts, Helsinki from 1874 to 1878, the Imperial Academy of Arts from 1883 to 1886 (where one of his teachers was his uncle, Mikhail Clodt), and the Académie Julian in Paris from 1886 to 1888, where he studied with Tony Robert-Fleury. A major influence was the Naturalism of Jules Bastien-Lepage.

Portrait by Gunnar Berndtson in 1892

Portrait of his wife Saimi by Järnefelt in 1895

In 1889, he married the actress Saimi Swan. In 1892, he made his first trip to the area around Koli with Juhani Aho and his wife, the painter Venny Soldan-Brofeldt. He was impressed with the scenery there and would continue to visit regularly until 1936.

In 1893, he traveled to Finland where he sketched and photographed agricultural workers which inspired his most famous painting, Under the Yoke (Burning the Brushwood). Later, he made several study trips; to Italy in 1894 and Crimea in 1899. That same year, he helped organize an international exhibition in Saint Petersburg, sponsored by Mir Iskusstva.

In 1901, he built a home that he named "Suviranta" (Summer Beach) at the artists' colony near Lake Tuusula, designed by Usko Nyström. He lived there only until 1917 when he moved to Helsinki, but it is still owned and used by his family.

Self-Portrait, unknown date

From 1902 to 1928, he taught drawing at the University of Helsinki. He was appointed professor there in 1912 and served as chairman of the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts. His last major work was an altarpiece for the church in Raahe, which he completed in 1926. A major retrospective was held in 2013, which included several previously unknown works.

Selected paintings

Autumn Landscape of Lake Pielisjärvi, 1899 (fi)

General works

• 
  Berry Pickers, 1888
• 
  French Wine Bar, 1888 (fi)
• 
  Laundry at the River Bank, 1889 (fi)
• 
  Summer Night Moon, 1889 (fi)
• 
  Cows in Turf Smoke, 1891 (fi)
• 
  Saimi in the Meadow, 1892
• 
  Householder and the Farmhands, 1893
• 
  Great Crested Grebe, unknown date
• 
  Under the Yoke (Burning the Brushwood), 1893 (fi)
• 
  Pond Water Crowfoot and Shorestones, 1895 (fi)
• 
  Falcons in the Forest, 1895
• 
  Jesus and the Sinful Woman, 1908 (fi)
  
• 
  Lake Shore with Reeds, 1905 (fi)
• 
  Girl with a Dog, 1910
• 
  Blooming Summer, 1918
• 
  In a Storm with Jesus, 1926
  
• 
  Conversion of Paul the Apostle, 1932
  

Portraits

• 
  Johan Philip Palmén, 1890
• 
  Jean Sibelius, 1892
• 
  Larin Paraske, 1893
• 
  Portrait of the Artist's Son, 1897
  (Heikki Järnefelt (1891–1963))
• 
  Nelma, 1899
  (Nelma Sibelius)
• 
  Leena, 1903
  (Leena Järnefelt (1897–1991))
• 
  Tekla Hultin, 1905
• 
  Aino Sibelius, 1908
• 
  Juho Kusti Paasikivi, 1931
• 
  Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim 1933
• 
  Pehr Evind Svinhufvud, 1933
• 
  Children playing, 1895

See also

• Golden Age of Finnish Art

Further reading

• Pontus Grate and Nils Göran Hökby, ed. 1880-tal i nordiskt måleri [The 1880s in Nordic painting] (exh. cat., Stockholm: Nationalmuseum, 1985) ISBN 9789171002822
• Leena Lindqvist (ed.), Taiteilijan tiellä – Eero Järnefelt 1863–1937 (The Artist's Path), Otava, 2002 ISBN 951-1-144-66-9
• Marko Toppi (ed.), Eero ja Saimi Järnefeltin kirjeenvaihtoa ja päiväkirjamerkintöjä 1889–1914 (correspondence and diaries, vol.1), SKS, 2009 ISBN 978-952-222-113-1
• Marko Toppi (ed.), Vain tosi on pysyväistä. Eero ja Saimi Järnefeltin kirjeenvaihtoa ja päiväkirjamerkintöjä 1915–1944 (correspondence and diaries, vol.2), SKS, 2013 ISBN 978-952-222-399-9.
• Kirk Varnedoe, ed. Northern Light: Realism and Symbolism in Scandinavian Painting, 1880–1910 (exh. cat., New York, Brooklyn Museum of Art, 1982) ISBN ISBN 9780872730946
• Ludwig Wennervirta: Eero Järnefelt, ja hänen aikansa 1863–1937 (Helsinki: Otava, 1950)

External links

• Arcadja Auctions: More works by Järnefelt
• Finnish 10 Euro Coin (2013) honoring Eero Järnefelt @ the Mint of Finland
• Europeana blog, from January 2020