Halosenniemi Museum
An imposing pinewood villa by Lake Tuusula, combining a family home and studio for the painter Pekka Halonen (1865-1933).
Similar studio museums...
- Musée Gustave Moreau, France - a typical example of the Parisian 'double height' studio from which Halonen took architectural inspiration
- Zornmuseet, Sweden - a thirteenth-century log cabin that became home to the prolific Swedish painter Anders Zorn (1860-1920)
Feature List
- Guided Tours
- Disabled facilities
- Temporary exhibitions
Halonen and his wife, Maija Mäkinen, settled in Lake Tuusula in 1898, shortly after their marriage in 1895. Halonen had previously studied in Paris, at the private Académies Julian and Colarossi, and with Paul Gauguin (1848-1903). He designed his new family home and studio in collaboration with his brother, Antti, and it was completed in 1902. 'Halosenniemi' was intended to fuse the idiom of the English country house and the traditional Karelian log house with the double height studios Halonen had seen in Paris. Over the years, it became a family home for the couple and their eight children, but also provided a focus for Halonen's art. Believing that 'I need but step into the forest to see the most wonderful works of art ever created', Halonen draw great inspiration from his surroundings.
Halonen died in Halosenniemi in 1933, and was buried in the local cemetery at Tuusula, with the gravestone designed by his cousin, the sculptor Emil Hanolen (1875-1950). The house opened as a museum in 1950, shortly after the death of Hanolen's wife Maija in 1944; in 1989/90 its interiors were restored to their original appearance. Along with paintings by Halonen, Halosenniemi also presents a rotating programme of temporary exhibitions, and a range of archival material relating to Halonen's life and circle.
