When
returning from my sister’s last Sunday, we stopped at Visavuori, the museum of Emil
Wikström, Finland’s first and foremost sculptor of the national romanticism
era of the late 19th and early 20th century.
The
time of art nouveau and the arts & crafts movement produced some amazing
private buildings also by us. The castle-like studio dominates Visavuori. It was
designed by the artist himself, of stone and brick probably to ensure that the
catastrophe he met with his first home and studio on this site would never be
repeated. The first wooden building was wiped out in a fire also destroying
many of Wikström’s original pieces of art.
The
studio is equipped with everything an artist might have wished for in the early
20th century and not just that. It even holds spaces related to Wikström’s
leisure-time activities, such as an observatory for studying stars and a darkroom
for developing photographs. He was also interested in gardening and playing the
organ so the extension incorporated a conservatory and a loft for the organ his
brother had built. There is also a nice little nest for some rest and relaxation up
on the gallery.
The
Visavuori museum consists of Wikström’s studio, his home and the pavilion of
his grandson Kari Suomalainen who was
by far the most celebrated Finnish political cartoonist of the 20th century,
and of all time for that matter. Kari’s pavilion now stands where the
greenhouse used to be.
Visavuori
is located on a picturesque rocky cape by Lake Vanaja outside the village of Sääksmäki in Valkeakoski
some 130 km north of Helsinki. It is such a comprehensive and impressive work
of art that the residence deserves a post of its own (here).
Emil Wikström
was born 150 years ago in Turku. He came from a poor family but luckily his
talents in wood carving were noted and he was sponsored to study art. He first studied
at the Finnish Art Association’s drawing school in Turku and Helsinki, and later
in the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna and in Académie Julian in Paris. The best-known and most beloved of his sculptures are the four huge lantern bearers (Lyhdynkantajat) guarding the main
entrance to the Helsinki Central Railway Station. Wikström died in 1942 at the age of
78 in Helsinki. It was said that separation from Visavuori was even harder for him than departure from life.
