PAINTERS from Finland

Top 10

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the top 10 most legendary Finnish Painters of all time. This list of famous Finnish Painters is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography's online popularity. Visit the rankings page to view the entire list of Finnish Painters.

1. Akseli Gallen-Kallela (1865 - 1931)

With an HPI of 71.34, Akseli Gallen-Kallela is the most famous Finnish Painter.  His biography has been translated into 49 different languages on wikipedia.

Akseli Gallen-Kallela (born Axel Waldemar Gallén; 26 April 1865 – 7 March 1931) was a Finnish painter who is best known for his illustrations of the Kalevala, the Finnish national epic. His work is considered a very important aspect of the Finnish national identity. He finnicized his name from Gallén to Gallen-Kallela in 1907.

2. Helene Schjerfbeck (1862 - 1946)

With an HPI of 69.51, Helene Schjerfbeck is the 2nd most famous Finnish Painter.  Her biography has been translated into 40 different languages.

Helena Sofia (Helene) Schjerfbeck (pronounced [heˈleːn ˈʃæ̌rvbek] ; July 10, 1862 – January 23, 1946) was a Finnish modernist painter known for her realist works and self-portraits, and also for her landscapes and still lifes. Throughout her long life her work changed dramatically, beginning with French-influenced realism and plein air painting. It gradually evolved towards portraits and still life paintings. At the beginning of her career she often produced historical paintings, such as the Wounded Warrior in the Snow (1880), At the Door of Linköping Jail in 1600 (1882) and The Death of Wilhelm von Schwerin (1886). Historical paintings were usually the realm of male painters, as was experimentation with modern influences and French radical naturalism, and her works from mostly the 1880s did not receive a favourable reception until later in her life. Her work starts with a dazzlingly skilled, somewhat melancholic version of late-19th-century academic realism.... It ends with distilled, nearly abstract images in which pure paint and cryptic description are held in perfect balance. (Roberta Smith, The New York Times, November 27, 1992) Schjerbeck's birthday, July 10, is Finland's national day for the painted arts.

3. Albert Edelfelt (1854 - 1905)

With an HPI of 67.92, Albert Edelfelt is the 3rd most famous Finnish Painter.  His biography has been translated into 40 different languages.

Albert Gustaf Aristides Edelfelt (21 July 1854 – 18 August 1905) was a Finnish painter noted for his naturalistic style and Realist approach to art. He lived in the Grand Duchy of Finland and made Finnish culture visible abroad, before Finland gained independence. He was considered the greatest Finnish artist of the second half of 19th and the first half of the 20th centuries, and one of the most prominent contributors to the Golden Age of Finnish Art.

4. Hugo Simberg (1873 - 1917)

With an HPI of 65.77, Hugo Simberg is the 4th most famous Finnish Painter.  His biography has been translated into 31 different languages.

Hugo Gerhard Simberg (24 June 1873 – 12 July 1917) was a Finnish symbolist painter and graphic artist.

5. Tom of Finland (1920 - 1991)

With an HPI of 64.67, Tom of Finland is the 5th most famous Finnish Painter.  His biography has been translated into 34 different languages.

Touko Valio Laaksonen (8 May 1920 – 7 November 1991), known by the pseudonym Tom of Finland, was a Finnish artist who made stylized erotic art featuring hypermasculinity, and influenced late 20th-century gay culture. He has been called the "most influential creator of gay pornographic images" by cultural historian Joseph W. Slade. Over the course of four decades, he produced some 3,500 illustrations, mostly featuring men with exaggerated sexual traits, wearing tight or partially removed clothing.

6. Amélie Lundahl (1850 - 1914)

With an HPI of 61.72, Amélie Lundahl is the 6th most famous Finnish Painter.  Her biography has been translated into 24 different languages.

Helga Amélie Lundahl (26 May 1850 – 20 August 1914) was a Finnish painter.

7. Elin Danielson-Gambogi (1861 - 1919)

With an HPI of 61.63, Elin Danielson-Gambogi is the 7th most famous Finnish Painter.  Her biography has been translated into 21 different languages.

Elin Kleopatra Danielson-Gambogi (née Danielson; 3 September 1861 – 31 December 1919) was a Finnish painter, best known for her realist works and portraits. Danielson-Gambogi was part of the first generation of Finnish women artists who received professional education in art, the so-called "painter sisters' generation". The group also included Helene Schjerfbeck (1862–1946), Helena Westermarck (1857-1938), and Maria Wiik (1853-1928).

8. Ellen Thesleff (1869 - 1954)

With an HPI of 59.61, Ellen Thesleff is the 8th most famous Finnish Painter.  Her biography has been translated into 21 different languages.

Ellen Thesleff (5 October 1869 – 12 January 1954) was a Finnish expressionist painter, regarded as one of the leading Finnish modernist painters. Thesleff was born in Helsinki, the eldest daughter of five siblings and her father was an amateur painter. She took private lessons and then, in 1887, studied for two years at the Finnish Art Society Drawing School (now known as the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts) with Gunnar Berndtson. In 1891, Thesleff moved to Paris and enrolled into Académie Colarossi. Thesleff spent all of her life in Finland, France, and Italy, visiting Italy first in 1894. In Finland, she had a family estate at Murole, Ruovesi. She never married. Thesleff took part in many big exhibitions in the 20th century; in particular, in 1949 her paintings were on display in a large exhibition of Nordic art in Copenhagen and were praised by the media. At the beginning of her career, Thesleff worked on symbolist paintings in the style similar to Eugène Carrière, though she insisted she was most influenced by Édouard Manet. Later, she moved to expressionism and modernism, most notably landscapes. Thesleff was included in the 2018 exhibit Women in Paris 1850-1900.

9. Magnus Enckell (1870 - 1925)

With an HPI of 58.94, Magnus Enckell is the 9th most famous Finnish Painter.  His biography has been translated into 18 different languages.

Knut Magnus Enckell (9 November 1870 in Hamina – 27 November 1925 in Stockholm) was a Finnish symbolist painter. At first, he painted with a subdued palette, but from 1902 onwards, used increasingly bright colors. He was a leading member of the Septem group of colorist painters. In Finland, Enckell is considered to have been a very influential symbolist artist.

10. Pekka Halonen (1865 - 1933)

With an HPI of 58.12, Pekka Halonen is the 10th most famous Finnish Painter.  His biography has been translated into 18 different languages.

Pekka Halonen (23 September 1865 – 1 December 1933) was a Finnish painter of landscapes and people in the national romantic and Realist styles.