Albert Edelfelt's Studio Museum
A summer retreat on the Porvoo archipelago for the Finnish artist Albert Edelfelt (1854-1905).
Similar studio museums...
- Liebermann-Villa on Lake Wannsee, Germany - the summer retreat of the German painter Max Liebermann (1847-1935)
- Hogarth's House, United Kingdom - the country house of the eighteenth-century painter, engraver and satirist William Hogarth (1697-1764)
Albert Edelfelt began his career painting historical narrative subjects, often drawn from Finnish literature. The 1877 painting Queen Bianca (Ateneum Art Museum) is a prime example, and was accepted into the Paris Salon of the same year. However, Edelfelt became increasingly interested in the possibilities of painting en plein air. In 1879, his mother, to whom the artist was close throughout his life, rented a summer village in Haikko village, near Porvoo, and Albert Edelfelt fell in love with the scenery. Here he began painting one of his most famous works, A Child's Funeral (Ateneum Art Museum), drawing inspiration from the landscape around him.
Within the year, Edelfelt had purchased the former residence of the estate's manager and, in 1883, he added a purpose-built studio. In all, Edelfelt spent twenty-six summers here, in between winter visits to Paris and St Petersburg, and he painted some 220 works in and around the studio, including some of his most famous paintings. The studio became a museum in 1951 and today displays a selection of drawings, photographs and artefacts dating from Edelfelt's time.