The high summer of Finnish art

Gordon Sander | Engelsberg Ideas | 14th August 2026

In the 1890’s, Finland was under the sway of Russia. Finnish artists, wanting to resist Russia’s ever-closer embrace, were drawn to painting realist images of the Finnish countryside. They variously highlighted the landscape, the lives of poor farming families or Finland’s effulgent summers. Influenced by Russian art and French impressionism, they crystallised “the country’s imaginative firmament” and made Finland’s presence at the 1900 World Fair the coming out of a soon-to-be national identity.