Eero Järnefelt

Erik "Eero" Nikolai Järnefelt (8 November 1863 – 15 November 1937) was a Finnish painter and art professor. He is best known for his portraits and landscapes of the area around Koli National Park, in the North Karelia region of Finland. He was a medal winner at the Paris Exposition Universelle of 1889 and 1900, taught art at the University of Helsinki and was chairman of the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts.

Biography He was the son of General Alexander Järnefelt and Baroness Elisabeth Järnefelt (née Clodt von Jürgensburg). He came from a Swedish-speaking Finnophile family of artists, writers and composers descended from the Baltic aristocracy. Several of his eight siblings also became well-known: (a literary critic), Arvid (a judge and writer), Armas (a composer and conductor) and Aino (wife of Jean Sibelius).

After graduating from a private academy, he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts, Helsinki from 1874 to 1878, the Imperial Academy of Arts from 1883 to 1886 (where one of his teachers was his uncle, Mikhail Clodt), and the Académie Julian in Paris from 1886 to 1888, where he studied with Tony Robert-Fleury. A major influence was the Naturalism of Jules Bastien-Lepage.

In 1893, he traveled to Finland where he sketched and photographed agricultural workers which inspired his most famous painting, Under the Yoke (Burning the Brushwood). Later, he made several study trips; to Italy in 1894 and Crimea in 1899. That same year, he helped organize an international exhibition in Saint Petersburg, sponsored by Mir Iskusstva.

In 1901, he built a home that he named "Suviranta" (Summer Beach) at the artists' colony near Lake Tuusula, designed by Usko Nyström. He lived there only until 1917 when he moved to Helsinki, but it is still owned and used by his family.

From 1902 to 1928, he taught drawing at the University of Helsinki. He was appointed professor there in 1912 and served as chairman of the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts. (fi) Eero Järnefelt - Pond Water Crowfoot and Shorestones.jpg|Pond Water Crowfoot and Shorestones, 1895 (fi) Eero Järnefelt Haukat metsässä.jpg|Falcons in the Forest, 1895 Järnefelt, Jeesus ja aviorikoksesta tavattu nainen.jpg|Jesus and the Sinful Woman, 1908 (fi) Eero Järnefelt - Lake Shore with Reeds.jpg |Lake Shore with Reeds, 1905 (fi) Eero Järnefelt - Girl with a dog (1910).jpg|Girl with a Dog, 1910 Eero Järnefelt - Blooming Summer.jpg|Blooming Summer, 1918 Jarnefelt Eero Altarpiece in Raahe 1926.JPG|In a Storm with Jesus, 1926 Järnefelt, Saulin kääntyminen.jpg|Conversion of Paul the Apostle, 1932