Eero Järnefelt

Erik ( Eero ) Nikolai Järnefelt ( born November 8, 1863 in Vyborg, † November 15, 1937 in Helsinki) was a Finnish painter of realism.

Family

Eero Järnefelt was born in 1863 as son of the Finnish general and provincial governor Alexander Järnefelt and his wife Elisabeth (born Clodt of Jürgensburg ). He had six siblings. The writer Arvid Järnefelt and the composer and conductor Armas Järnefelt were his brothers, his sister Aino was married to Jean Sibelius.

Life and work

Järnefelt studied from 1883 to 1885 at the Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg. In 1886 he went to further studies in Paris, where he was with Akseli Gallen-Kallela, Finnish sculptor Emil Wikström ( 1864-1942 ) and the Swedish painter and designer Louis Sparre ( 1863-1964 ) friends. In 1889 he traveled to Keuruu, where he met his future wife, actress Saimi Swan, whom he married a year later.

His work is influenced by the French plein-air painting and the naturalistic paintings of Jules Bastien- Lepage.