Pekka Halonen, a selection of paintings

Mowing Men, 1891.

Pekka Halonen (23 September 1865, Linnasalmi – 1 December 1933, Tuusula), landscape and figurative painter, one of the major figures of the Finnish "Golden Age".  The son of a farmer, he first studied at Helsinki's Finnish Art Society drawing school, and later traveled to Paris and Italy in pursuit of his artistic career.  In Paris, he studied at the Académie Julian and later with Paul Gauguin.  Gauguin encouraged him to find his own individual style, which would be based on a strongly nationalistic aesthetic.

Holiday in the New House, 1894.

In 1898, Halonen and his growing family - he would eventually have eight children - moved to the shore of Lake Tuusula in Finland, where he designed and built a house and studio.  (Called Halosenniemi, the building is now a  museum and includes the original furnishings and the artist's work.)  Halonen was a conservationist - something considered radical at the time - and his family farmed and endeavored to live what we would call a sustainable lifestyle; Halosenniemi was established in a natural preserve.  On the shores of the lake, an artist's community grew up, helping to foster work with a Finnish national character.

Violinist, 1900.  (The painter's brother, violinist Heikki Halonen)

Boy on the Shore, 1891-93.

Woman in a Boat, 1922.

Meal, 1899.

Boys Swimming, 1894.