Pekka Halonen was a Finnish landscape and people painter who would become one of the most notable painters in the Finnish art world.
His art is vast, but his history is largely an enigma. His old house halosenniemi (now a museum dedicated to his work and lifestyle) is the most informative place on his life, showing why he is considered one of the great painters of the Finnish “national romantic” era.
Pekka was born in Lapinlahti, Finland on September 23, 1865 as the son of Olli Halonen, a peasant and craftsman, and Wilhelmina Halonen, consummate folk music. The family consisted of five sons and two daughters, with Pekka being the third oldest of the seven children.
In 1885 he tried to get a position as a primary school teacher, but his score was not good enough to enter teacher training, so he moved to Helsinki where his only acquaintance was the architect Josef Stenbackin. Together with Stenbäckin, he intended to become an artist, and in the fall he began his art studies.
To support himself, he worked in construction and as a decorative painter when work was available. In the spring of 1866 he was chosen to study at the Atheneumin, Art Society Drawing School de FinlandAnd so began his great adventure.
In the spring of 1867, Halonen received, along with three other students, the school's Silver Pen Award for progress and diligence. That summer, Halonen worked hard, but his earnings were, however, so low that he had to resort to asking for help from his municipality of residence in order to continue his studies at the Atheneumin.
He had to write his application in Swedish for “why a Finn qualifies for assistance”. In the end she succeeded and studied at the Atheneumin from 1866 to 1890, being a student of Carl Jahn and Fredrik Ahlstedt. His fellow students included Albert Gebhard, Ellen Thesleff, and Väinö blomstedt.
During this time, he received excellent grades and a 200-point stipend and spent the summer of 1890 at his home in Lapland in the Gulf, where he painted, among other things, the work honkaniemi. He studied French and took private lessons to help him learn French more proficiently, in 1890 in Paris, first in the Julian Academy and then with Paul Gauguin.
Halonen became a family man and moved in with them in a house, then, with the help of Stenbäckin, created a house on the lake. tuusula Finland, and called her halosenniemi, one building is now a museum including original furniture and Halonen's own art.
There, on the shores of the lake where he resided, a community of artists flourished, as well as developing a sense of Finnish national identity.
halosenniemi was designed with the two-story studios of Paris, with high ceilings and tall windows in the study, and the second floor living room accessible by a set of stairs and a balcony that overlooked the study. Next to the house, Halonen built a sauna, which in typical Finnish tradition also served as a laundry room.
In those years, the painter seems to have found his way and the peace that inspired him to work. Halonen stated that he never painted for anyone but himself; he felt that "art should not jar the nerves like sandpaper, it should produce a sense of peace", and if one studies his later works, he will find that that was what he achieved.
In an interview published in Nya Pressen in 1932, Pekka summed up his ideas about art, saying:
Seeking peace and harmony through my art has become part of my religion, so to speak. Nature is my inspiration. I have lived in the same place for more than 30 years, surrounded by forests. I often feel like I have all the Louvre and the world's most precious art treasures right here on my doorstep. I just need to go into the woods to see the most amazing works of art ever created, and I ask for nothing more.
In the end, I didn't see his paintings as 'naturalists', although he did his best to portray nature as faithfully as possible.
For him, nature was the skeleton, but the meat of the painting was really its atmosphere. Pekka used to say that mood is everything; he didn't waste time thinking about problems, he just went out, tried to have a good day, since that was where he could find what he was looking for, and then just jumped in to capture it on canvas.
Pekka Halonen died December 1, 1933 in halosenniemi. Today he is buried in the old Tuusula cemetery. The tombstone was made by his cousin, the sculptor emil halonen. His wife, Maija Halonen, died in 1944, and in 1949 the house was sold to the municipality of tuusula on the condition that it become a museum.