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- Pekka Halonen. An ode to Finland.
Pekka Halonen
An ode to Finland
PRACTICAL INFORMATION
About the Exhibition
This exhibition is on view from 21 March to 16 August.
Accessibility
- Wheelchair accessible
- Assistance dogs allowed
Admission Fees
- Adults: €16.50
- Youth up to 17 years: free
- Students: free
- CJP cardholders (upon presentation): €8.00
- Group rate: €14.00 (from 10 persons)
Free entry for Museum Card holders, VriendenLoterij VIP cardholders, Friends of the Museum, Business Club members, Young RMT members, and members of the Rembrandt Association.
Halonen had an unmatched ability to capture the unspoiled nature of Finland. The exhibition shows how he expressed Finnish identity through his paintings of everyday life.
His work is a tribute to Finnish identity and closely intertwined with the political and social developments of the time. At the dawn of the 20th century, when Finland’s survival was under threat, he gave his landscapes a symbolic meaning to strengthen the national consciousness and pride of his fellow countrymen.
Pekka Halonen was born in Lapinlahti in Central Finland and was deeply moved from an early age by the unspoiled nature that would later become a lasting source of inspiration for his work. After his art studies in Helsinki, he, like many artists of his time, went to Paris, where in 1890 he spent a brief period working with the French painter Paul Gauguin.
Back in Finland, Halonen turned his back on urban modernity and rapid industrialization. Instead, his paintings captured the untouched nature and simple rural life, characterized by the clear Scandinavian light. His landscapes reveal the transformative power of nature and the cycle of the seasons. During this period, Halonen painted many atmospheric winter scenes, focusing on snow and the play of light and shadow. These works earned him the nickname ‘the snow painter’ and are the part of his oeuvre for which he became best known.
By Lake Tuusula, about an hour north of Helsinki, Halonen built Halosenniemi: a home with a spacious studio where he could paint nature throughout the year.
Around the lake, a thriving artist colony emerged, where, alongside Halonen, other painters, writers, and composers settled, including the famous composer Jean Sibelius and painter Eero Järnefelt. Halosenniemi grew into an important meeting place for the cultural elite. The surroundings offered an inexhaustible source of inspiration, and it was here that Halonen developed the distinctive style for which he became known.
This exhibition is the first major retrospective held outside Finland and is organized in collaboration with the Ateneum Art Museum in Helsinki, the Petit Palais in Paris, and Ordrupgaard in Denmark.
Curated by Valentijn As, Rijksmuseum Twenthe and Dr. Anna-Maria von Bonsdorff, Director, Ateneum Art Museum, Finnish National Gallery, adapted from the original concept by Annick Lemoine, Director and Anne-Charlotte Cathelineau, Chief Curator, Petit Palais Museum, and Dr. Anna-Maria von Bonsdorff, Director, Ateneum Art Museum, Finnish National Gallery.
Credit lines:
- Pekka Halonen, Winter Landscape in the Sun, 1911, Finnish National Gallery Collection. Ateneum Art Museum, Helsinki
- Pekka Halonen, Boy by the Shore, 1891–1933, Finnish National Gallery. Ateneum Art Museum, Helsinki
- Pekka Halonen, Pioneers in Karelia, 1900, Finnish National Gallery Collection. Ateneum Art Museum, Helsinki
- Pekka Halonen, Tomatoes, 1913, Finnish National Gallery Collection. Ateneum Art Museum, Helsinki
- Pekka Halonen, Snow-Covered Young Pines, 1899, Finnish National Gallery Collection. Ateneum Art Museum
