Werner Holmberg

Gustaf Werner Holmberg (1 November 1830 – 24 September 1860) was a Finnish landscape painter.

Biography Early life Holmberg was born in Helsinki. His father was Olof Henrik Holmberg (1799–1863) and mother Josefina Gustava Federley (1806–1840). His mother died from a lung disease and Olof raised his six surviving children with the help of his sisters. Werner was interested in painting from a young age, taking private lessons from and later Magnus von Wright. He also learned oil painting from Johan Erik Lindh. In 1848 he became a student at the just-formed Academy of Fine Arts. By this point Gude recognized Holmberg as fully trained and ended his tutorship, although they still kept close contact. As he ran out sketches of Finland, he began painting German landscapes. Gude also spent some time with Holmberg in Norway, painting watercolor sketches together near Christiania. Holmberg had settled to live in Düsseldorf where he spent the winter with Anna. They visited Finland in the summer of 1859 and spent time in Kuru. The situation looked brighter again when he was invited to be a professor of landscape art in a new art school in Weimar. However, the invitation was cancelled and Werner was now bedridden with his sickness. As he died in September, many of his paintings were left unfinished. One of his sisters and an older brother had also died from the same sickness.