DOI Heft:
No. 34 (January, 1896)
DOI Artikel:The artistic movement in Finland
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.17295#0245
The Artistic Movement in Finland
although in this paper we shall be unable to refer custom of these handbooks to illustrate according
to other than some paintings by Finnish artists to merit), even then the exhibition must be memor-
recently exhibited in that town, of which the illus- able. But if, as is more probably the case, the
trated catalogue {Katolog ofver Finska Konstndrernas pictures reproduced represent the average, then
utstdllning, i8pjf) is now before us. This notice Helsingfors may be considered, on its own merits,
(one may as well confess it frankly) is the joint as a gallery which deserves no less serious attention
work of one who has been there, and another who than many far more widely known,
knows the "works only in their reproductions. Owing to the courtesy of those concerned, a
few illustrations are given
here. But to show samples
of a gallery as evidence of
the whole collection is not
unlike the proverbial folly
of carrying about a brick as
a sample of the house it
represents ; for colour, per-
haps the chief factor in a
painting, is necessarily ab-
sent, the scale of the picture
is distorted, and the half-
tone blocks from photo-
graphs are apt. to make all
look equally important.
Allowing for these obvious
shortcomings, even the few
pictures illustrated here
suffice to prove that the
show is more than passable,
and the statement that
there are many others no
less satisfactory can be
safely taken on trust.
For the Finnish pictures
have a strongly marked
individual character. Not
merely is the subject often
enough distinctly national,
but the colouring and hand-
ling are not identical with
those of any other school.
The natives are anxious to
escape German or Russian
influence, and to develop
"SPRINGTIME IN FINLAND" FROM A PAINTING BY H. MUNSTERHJELM ,, . ,.
their own personality. The
author of a very interesting
The catalogue itself has a noteworthy design book, lately published, Vignettes from Finland, says,
upon its cover which is signed by Louis Sparre and " Art in the Grand Duchy, like education, politics,
F. Tilgmann. The reproductions throughout are and literature, is nothing if not patriotic. A republic
quite equal to the illustrated handbooks of the in the heart of an autocracy as pronounced as that
Paris Salon, or the Royal Academy, or the other of the Holy Russian Empire must be patriotic to
galleries that issue similar publications. The two hold its own. No foreign influence is allowed to
hundred and twenty-nine works catalogued are dominate its style, or otherwise it would no longer
illustrated in thirty-one examples only, but if these represent the country of its birth." Without
are the best (and it is by no means the usual forcing this characteristic beyond its true value,
228
although in this paper we shall be unable to refer custom of these handbooks to illustrate according
to other than some paintings by Finnish artists to merit), even then the exhibition must be memor-
recently exhibited in that town, of which the illus- able. But if, as is more probably the case, the
trated catalogue {Katolog ofver Finska Konstndrernas pictures reproduced represent the average, then
utstdllning, i8pjf) is now before us. This notice Helsingfors may be considered, on its own merits,
(one may as well confess it frankly) is the joint as a gallery which deserves no less serious attention
work of one who has been there, and another who than many far more widely known,
knows the "works only in their reproductions. Owing to the courtesy of those concerned, a
few illustrations are given
here. But to show samples
of a gallery as evidence of
the whole collection is not
unlike the proverbial folly
of carrying about a brick as
a sample of the house it
represents ; for colour, per-
haps the chief factor in a
painting, is necessarily ab-
sent, the scale of the picture
is distorted, and the half-
tone blocks from photo-
graphs are apt. to make all
look equally important.
Allowing for these obvious
shortcomings, even the few
pictures illustrated here
suffice to prove that the
show is more than passable,
and the statement that
there are many others no
less satisfactory can be
safely taken on trust.
For the Finnish pictures
have a strongly marked
individual character. Not
merely is the subject often
enough distinctly national,
but the colouring and hand-
ling are not identical with
those of any other school.
The natives are anxious to
escape German or Russian
influence, and to develop
"SPRINGTIME IN FINLAND" FROM A PAINTING BY H. MUNSTERHJELM ,, . ,.
their own personality. The
author of a very interesting
The catalogue itself has a noteworthy design book, lately published, Vignettes from Finland, says,
upon its cover which is signed by Louis Sparre and " Art in the Grand Duchy, like education, politics,
F. Tilgmann. The reproductions throughout are and literature, is nothing if not patriotic. A republic
quite equal to the illustrated handbooks of the in the heart of an autocracy as pronounced as that
Paris Salon, or the Royal Academy, or the other of the Holy Russian Empire must be patriotic to
galleries that issue similar publications. The two hold its own. No foreign influence is allowed to
hundred and twenty-nine works catalogued are dominate its style, or otherwise it would no longer
illustrated in thirty-one examples only, but if these represent the country of its birth." Without
are the best (and it is by no means the usual forcing this characteristic beyond its true value,
228