Winter in visual art, print version


Winter in northern finnish visual art of the 1900s Finnish art reveals two contrary winters. One is winter as a metaphor for death; the other, brilliant expanses of snow in spring, is a symbol of Finnish identity discovered by the national romantics. Hugo Simberg's Halla [Frost] and many of Eino Leino's poems are moving descriptions of winter and death. When Mother Frost speaks, the note sounds with collapsing wings; and when gray Frost beats her sons, the result is crippled, crude and stunted children. The skier in Leino's poems, for his part, is quiet and sad. He skis alone or with death at his side and it is only a hint of spring that brings brighter tones to the winter poems. Did the well-known northern Finnish painters Einari Junttila (1901-1975), Reidar Särestöniemi (1925-1981) and Kalervo Palsa (1947-1987) feel that winter was a gloomy or a happy time of year? What meanings do winter, snow, and ice represent in their works? Einari Junttila was a prolific painter of winter landscapes. In his small watercolors, he depicted snowfalls, storms and aspects of the arctic environment such as shoveling snow or reindeer-drawn sledges. The landscapes and events he painted in the Winter War, such as campfires and destroyed buildings, form a set of works in their own right. After the War, Junttila's winter landscapes changed to become the snow-covered expanses of spring, trees heavily laden and bent with snow and snow-covered fells. These motifs were connected with ski tourism, opportunities to sell paintings and the general aestheticization of winter. The Lappish landscape proved useful as a national symbol, particularly as the forests of Karelia had been lost to the Soviet Union. The snowstorms of Junttila's youth and his later pictures of snow-laden trees share a harmony with winter. Junttila studied nature carefully and depicted it without, for example, associating cold and snow with a metaphor of death. The weavings of Elsa Montell exhibit the same harmony. Pyry [Storm], Riekonpyytäjä [The Snow Grouse Hunter], Kaamos [Heart of Winter], Karhun talviuni [Bear's Winter Sleep], Arktinen horisontti [Arctic Horizon] or Sininen hetki [Blue Moment] are among the works she has done with a winter motif. Their colors and composition reflect different moments in the winter surroundings. Unlike Junttila and Montell, many pictorial artists have hated the winter. Reidar Särestöniemi felt distressed during the winter when young, with this followed by the joy and bursts of energy and activity in spring and summer. In her book Reidar , Brita Polttila tells how the artist decided to conquer winter by painting the early winter, gray plants on the ground and dark violet colors. Reidar worked hard at reconciling himself with both darkness and death. Ultimately, the sadness and oppressiveness of early winter developed into a friendship with the season. One reason why painters hated winter was the grayness of autumn, when there was not enough light to bring out the colors in their work. For example, Liisa Rautianen spent every November in Southern France for years. Reidar Särestöniemi also went abroad to escape winter. Often, however, he was only gone for a few months and his works include many winter motifs, such as that of ice forming as the river freezes and the first mosquitoes of spring. Some of his best-known and loved winter paintings are the Huurrekoivikko [Frost-covered Birches] works. Although experiences of nature are not the central theme of Kalervo Palsa's art, he, too, identified with nature and portrays himself in nature. Palsa uses winter and snow as narrative elements. Some works have radiators covered by snowdrifts and in others it is winter inside but summer outside. These depict the cold shack in which Palsa lived and worked. In addition, snow and ice convey distress and anxiety, inner cold or a cold emotional climate. The emotional charge in the works is not such to evoke pathos in any way, however. In particular, in the Paluu [Return] paintings and the cartoons in which a man is skiing in a room where it is snowing, the mood is calm and even solemn. Palsa, who was going back to Kittilä, builds up the story of a great artist, whose only alternative and source of art is to live in the North. Palsa's skier is a relative of Eino Leino's: Well may the skier ski with the snow full white underfoot and clear sky overhead. but it's more fun when the trees turn brown the wind roars, the track is overblown and the heavens rage in storm. Eino Leino: The Skier's Humming Junttila, Särestöniemi and Palsa did not have a uniform relation to nature but neither were their attitudes as divergent as one might think at first glance. The focus of their approach was careful examination of winter and the building of a balanced relationship either through everyday chores or painting. When winter is a means to deal with loneliness and death, it is helpful to reconcile oneself with winter (and death) – a sort of respect for winter. In this new millennium, many artists in northern Finland still take up winter motifs in their work. Pekka Kyrö paints snowstorms and Helena Junttila's Indian ink drawings are situated in white landscapes. Tuula Turkki has used white string, sheet metal and felt to represent cold, frost, ice and snow. Her works have been seen as criticizing the experience industry in Lapland, asking where the diverse and very physical winter experiences to be had here can be seen in how winter in Lapland is marketed. Huhmarniemi Maria
© University of Lapland and Kemi-Tornio Polytechnic, Culture Unit

Winter in northern finnish visual art of the 1900s

Finnish art reveals two contrary winters. One is winter as a metaphor for death; the other, brilliant expanses of snow in spring, is a symbol of Finnish identity discovered by the national romantics. Hugo Simberg's Halla [Frost] and many of Eino Leino's poems are moving descriptions of winter and death. When Mother Frost speaks, the note sounds with collapsing wings; and when gray Frost beats her sons, the result is crippled, crude and stunted children. The skier in Leino's poems, for his part, is quiet and sad. He skis alone or with death at his side and it is only a hint of spring that brings brighter tones to the winter poems.

Did the well-known northern Finnish painters Einari Junttila (1901-1975), Reidar Särestöniemi (1925-1981) and Kalervo Palsa (1947-1987) feel that winter was a gloomy or a happy time of year? What meanings do winter, snow, and ice represent in their works?

Einari Junttila was a prolific painter of winter landscapes. In his small watercolors, he depicted snowfalls, storms and aspects of the arctic environment such as shoveling snow or reindeer-drawn sledges. The landscapes and events he painted in the Winter War, such as campfires and destroyed buildings, form a set of works in their own right. After the War, Junttila's winter landscapes changed to become the snow-covered expanses of spring, trees heavily laden and bent with snow and snow-covered fells. These motifs were connected with ski tourism, opportunities to sell paintings and the general aestheticization of winter. The Lappish landscape proved useful as a national symbol, particularly as the forests of Karelia had been lost to the Soviet Union.

The snowstorms of Junttila's youth and his later pictures of snow-laden trees share a harmony with winter. Junttila studied nature carefully and depicted it without, for example, associating cold and snow with a metaphor of death. The weavings of Elsa Montell exhibit the same harmony. Pyry [Storm], Riekonpyytäjä [The Snow Grouse Hunter], Kaamos [Heart of Winter], Karhun talviuni [Bear's Winter Sleep], Arktinen horisontti [Arctic Horizon] or Sininen hetki [Blue Moment] are among the works she has done with a winter motif. Their colors and composition reflect different moments in the winter surroundings.

Unlike Junttila and Montell, many pictorial artists have hated the winter. Reidar Särestöniemi felt distressed during the winter when young, with this followed by the joy and bursts of energy and activity in spring and summer. In her book Reidar , Brita Polttila tells how the artist decided to conquer winter by painting the early winter, gray plants on the ground and dark violet colors. Reidar worked hard at reconciling himself with both darkness and death. Ultimately, the sadness and oppressiveness of early winter developed into a friendship with the season.

One reason why painters hated winter was the grayness of autumn, when there was not enough light to bring out the colors in their work. For example, Liisa Rautianen spent every November in Southern France for years. Reidar Särestöniemi also went abroad to escape winter. Often, however, he was only gone for a few months and his works include many winter motifs, such as that of ice forming as the river freezes and the first mosquitoes of spring. Some of his best-known and loved winter paintings are the Huurrekoivikko [Frost-covered Birches] works.

Although experiences of nature are not the central theme of Kalervo Palsa's art, he, too, identified with nature and portrays himself in nature. Palsa uses winter and snow as narrative elements. Some works have radiators covered by snowdrifts and in others it is winter inside but summer outside. These depict the cold shack in which Palsa lived and worked. In addition, snow and ice convey distress and anxiety, inner cold or a cold emotional climate. The emotional charge in the works is not such to evoke pathos in any way, however. In particular, in the Paluu [Return] paintings and the cartoons in which a man is skiing in a room where it is snowing, the mood is calm and even solemn. Palsa, who was going back to Kittilä, builds up the story of a great artist, whose only alternative and source of art is to live in the North. Palsa's skier is a relative of Eino Leino's:

Well may the skier ski
with the snow full white underfoot
and clear sky overhead.
but it's more fun when the trees turn brown
the wind roars, the track is overblown
and the heavens rage in storm.

Eino Leino: The Skier's Humming

Junttila, Särestöniemi and Palsa did not have a uniform relation to nature but neither were their attitudes as divergent as one might think at first glance. The focus of their approach was careful examination of winter and the building of a balanced relationship either through everyday chores or painting. When winter is a means to deal with loneliness and death, it is helpful to reconcile oneself with winter (and death) – a sort of respect for winter.

In this new millennium, many artists in northern Finland still take up winter motifs in their work. Pekka Kyrö paints snowstorms and Helena Junttila's Indian ink drawings are situated in white landscapes. Tuula Turkki has used white string, sheet metal and felt to represent cold, frost, ice and snow. Her works have been seen as criticizing the experience industry in Lapland, asking where the diverse and very physical winter experiences to be had here can be seen in how winter in Lapland is marketed.