The Sugar Girl
Artist Viljo Savikurki
Mannerheimintie 15a, Helsinki
Viljo Savikurki’s (1905-1975) The Sugar Girl is a realistic life-size bronze sculpture of a girl playing with a dog and offering it a sugarcube. The model for the girl was a 12 year-old school girl named Seija Hänninen.
The piece was unveiled on August 15, 1956 at the Finnish Sugar Co. Ltd’s 200th anniversary celebration. Inscribed on the stone pedastal are the words FINNISH SUGAR INDUSTRY 1756-1956, also in Swedish.
Savikurki studied in an art-school in 1933-38. He got the Pro Finlandia medal in 1963 and the title of an art professor in 1972.
The work was donated to the City and belongs to the City of Helsinki’s art collection, which is managed and curated by HAM.