Aimo Tukiainen played a central role in the Finnish art world of this century. In addition to his artist’s career he chaired both the Artists’ Association of Finland and the Association of Finnish Sculptors. His best-known work is, without doubt, the statue of Marshal Mannerheim, considered by many as the most demanding subject of the 20th century Finnish sculptor could have tackled. In his work Tukiainen emphasized his worker roots, as is shown by the garments of the parents in the Consumer Family and the factory visible behind them, lending depth to the relief. The work is typical of the stylized realism the artist often applied in the 1950s. This grey-granite relief is an integral part of the building’s wall.

The work doesn’t belong to the collections of the Helsinki Art Museum.

Finnish artists Patrik Söderlund and Visa Suonpää, known as IC-98, have created, together with poets Mikael Brygger, Henriikka Tavi and Olli-Pekka Tennilä, a conceptual artwork called IÄI that immerses the viewer in the forest. The work is located in the 22-hectare protected Kuivajärvi forest next to the Hyytiälä Forestry Field Station in Juupajoki, as well as in the Forest Sciences Building on Viikki Campus in Helsinki, where a small section of the work can be found.

The work is composed of 38 words or syllables written on stones, rocks and trees in the forest, or in the case of Helsinki, in concrete, on a wooden railing and on a stone transported from Hyytiälä. The words carved in Helsinki, Viikki are UTU ja HAVAH and AVA. Visitors can change upon the carvings, but due to the size of the artwork, experiencing it has been facilitated with a map that helps in locating the carvings.

Immeasurable Forest

This was the order of human institutions: first the forests, after that the huts, then the villages, next the cities, and finally the academies.[1] Our language too originates in the forest – gradually forgetting its origins. Instead of defining, measuring and building, IÄI aims to return a piece of language back to the forest.

Multidisciplinary research is conducted in the forests, peatlands and clearings around the Hyytiälä Forestry Field Station and in the nearby lake. The boreal forest ecosystem is measured and translated into data and time series, which are used to interpret events and changes occurring in the environment over time. Also Finnish foresters have been trained at the station from the early 20th century.

Casual hikers perceive the forest through its tree species, plants and topography, but experts look beneath the surface and understand signs which reveal the history of the place and its past changes. An ecological surveyor notices things that laypeople cannot see or are unable to look for and interpret. As their starting point, IC-98 wanted to understand the history of the Kuivajärvi forest and the effects of that history on the forest’s current status. This is why the forest was surveyed, after which writings were made in, onto and with the forest.

In addition to IC-98 and the poets, the IÄI group includes ecological surveyor Jyrki Lehtinen, visual artist Andrei Baharev and Kaius Paetau, an expert in traditional construction, who completed the carvings in the forest. The work is curated by Ulla Taipale and it was completed under the Climate Whirl Arts Programme between 2017 and 2020. The work has been handed over to the University of Helsinki art collection.

Havis Amanda to be repaired

The 115-year-old sculpture loved by the people of Helsinki is transferred to be conserved as part of renovations performed on the fountain and its surroundings. The duration of the repairs on the fountain square will depend on potential archaeological excavations, and the preliminary estimate is that the work on the square may continue until August 2024.

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Havis Amanda was completed and cast in bronze in Paris in 1906. It is a fountain with a female figure rising above it. It’s unveiling ceremony took place on 20th September 1908 in Helsinki’s main market place. According to the sculptor of this work, Ville Vallgren (1855-1940), the French were also interested in acquiring the sculpture for a location in Paris but Vallgren insisted that it was commissoned by the City of Helsinki. Havis Amanda fountain belongs to Vallgren’s charming Parisian art nouveau works, characterised by subtle and skilful forms. Although it is a monumental work, it shares the delicateness of Vallgren’s smaller sculptures.

According to Vallgren the central female figure, who has risen from the sea, symbolises Helsinki and the birth of the City. Upon her unveiling the Swedish language newspapers in Helsinki and the sculptor himself started to call the sculpture ‘Havis Amanda’.

The fountain also includes four sea lions and water-spouting fish amid the swaying seaweed at Havis Amanda’s feet. The sculpture is, for the most part, cast in bronze and stands on pink granite from Vehmaa. The work in total measures five metres in height.

Ville Vallgren lived and worked in Paris as he planned his ‘fountain sculptures’ for Helsinki. A young 19-year old Parisian lady, Marcelle Delquini, is likely to have modelled for Havis Amanda. According to Vallgren’s letter to the association of Porvoo Museum in 1906, another 19-year old Mademoiselle, Leonie Tavier, has modelled for the Little Havis Amanda now situated in the Porvoo Museum.

Initially, maiden¿s nakedness and seductiveness were considered inappropriate and the monument was strongly criticised, especially by women. However, it gradually won people’s favour and, as a consequence, has been the centre of innumerable celebrations and merrymaking for decades. The biggest of these celebrations is Vappu.

Vappu parties and rituals take place on the eve of May Day. It is a festival that combines the influences of Saint Walpurgis’ Day celebrations which welcome in the spring, International Labour Day, and the traditional springtime revelry of Scandinavian students. Old photographs reveal that people have been gathering around the Market Place fountain to celebrate with balloons since the 1930s. High-school graduates traditionally wear white, peaked caps while they party through the night of April 30th and into the following day.

Legend says that Havis Amanda received her first own cap as early as the 1920s. It then became somewhat of a tradition, which is still alive today. Annually, a group of delegated higher education students place a cap on the top of her curly locks. Until the 1970s, this ‘capping’ ritual, which is preceded by the bathing or ‘foaming’ of Havis Amanda, took place in the middle of the night to mark the beginning of the Vappu Day. Due to the event’s great popularity it nowadays starts earlier at 6pm. Not even in 1990, when for safety reasons climbing the monument was banned, was this ritual interrupted. Thus, tradition holds and Havis Amanda continues to receive her cap each year – though nowadays it is passed over and placed on her curly locks from a crane!

The work of art belongs to the collection of HAM Helsinki Art Museum.

The statue talks to you: https://patsaspuhuu.fi/havisamanda/?lang=en

In the 20th century, the majority of Finnish sculptors have followed the ideals of Realism. Their work is typified by a lucidity of form and matter-of-factness, combined with deep soulfulness. In Maija Nuotio’s work, two naturalistically shaped women splash water on each other in pool of water. The facing figures, almost mirror images, are twisted into postures reminiscent of wrestling, and the viewer stops to see which of the two will start the match.

The work was erected in 1982. Its material is bronze. The work doesn’t belong to the collections of the Helsinki Art Museum.

Miina Sillanpää (1866-1952) was a journalist and one of the most influential political figures in Finland in the early 20th century. She was a member of Parliament during 1907-47, Finland’s first female member of the Government as the Minister of Social Affairs in 1926-27. She paid special attention to the conditions of women who worked and took care of their children alone. She was also the chairperson of, for instance, the Ensi Kotien Liitto, a union of homes for unmarried mothers, in 1945-52. In addition, she held numerous positions of trust.

Miina Sillanpää’s memorial was commissioned from Aimo Tukiainen (1917-1996) following an invitational competition arranged in 1966. The work, titled `The Torch’, was unveiled on her 102th anniversary on June 4, 1968. `The Torch’ in abstract bronze sculpture in whose shape a reference to a flame of light rising from a torch can be seen. It is typical of Tukiainen’s work in the 1960s in which the artist studied the boundary of representative and abstract form and the visually and intellectually stimulating opportunities this frontier between visual perception and comprehension might offer.

The memorial is 5.5 metres high and its pedestal is made of granite. The pedestal contains a bas-relief of Sillanpää’s profile and includes her name and dates of birth and death.

The work belongs to the collections of the Helsinki Art Museum.

Explore the art collection

Bequeathed and donated collections

Leonard and Katarina Bäcksbacka Collection

Leonard (1892–1963) and Katarina Bäcksbacka’s (1894–1976, née Tichonowa) art collection is the museum’s most important donated collection. To display it, the city built the Art Museum Meilahti in 1976. Master of Arts Leonard Bäcksbacka and his wife Katarina Bäcksbacka assembled the works for the collection.

Ingjald Bäcksbacka and Christina Bäcksbacka Collections

Working beside his father from a young age, Ingjald (1925–1978) became the leader of Taidesalonki after Leonard Bäcksbacka’s death in 1963. He also continued assembling art for the collection. Ingjald Bäcksbacka had a significant role in organising Leonard and Katarina Bäcksbacka’s donation, which he prepared at the beginning of the 1970s for many years before it was officially donated to the city in 1976.

After Ingjald Bäcksbacka, his daughter Christina Bäcksbacka continued running Taidesalonki ­– one of the oldest galleries in Helsinki – from 1978 to 2020. According to Christina Bäcksbacka’s wish, the collection her grandparents assembled was separated into one body of work and the collection’s later additions into another under the name of the father and daughter. The collection was founded in 2018, and all works donated by Christina Bäcksbacka since 1980 were transferred to it.

Elsa Arokallio Collection

Elsa Arokallio (1892–1982) was an architect who bequeathed her art collection to the City of Helsinki. Received in 1983, the collection includes Arokallio’s works and sketches as well as works by Alwar Cawén, Tuomas von Boehm, Marcus Collin, and Magnus Enckell.

Gösta Becker Collection

Gösta Becker (1890–1949) was a specialist in internal medicine who, in addition to his research work and medical practice, was an art enthusiast and collector of visual arts and antiques. The collection includes paintings by Hugo Simberg, Albert Edelfelt, Akseli Gallen-Kallela, Eero Järnefelt, Pekka Halonen, and Helene Schjerfbeck; several sculptures by Wäinö Aaltonen; and prints by Akseli Gallen-Kallela and Ellen Thesleff. Additionally, the collection includes several glass, silver, brass, tin, and porcelain dishes as well as rococo and Gustavian furniture. The collection comprises a total of 193 artworks and objects. 

Otto W. Furuhjelm Collection

Lieutenant General Otto W. Furuhjelm’s art collection was donated to the City of Helsinki in 1883 for its museum-to-be. This collection, consisting of 58 artworks, was transferred from the Helsinki City Museum to HAM Helsinki Art Museum in 2015. The collection includes Italian, Dutch, and Polish art from the 17th to the 19th century.

Raimo and Maarit Huttunen Collection

The works in Raimo and Maarit Huttunen’s donated collection represent Finnish artists in painting, printmaking, and photography from the 1990s and 2000s. The collection’s works have been chosen with a personal touch and unconventional view. The most marginal phenomena of Finnish art have been considered in the acquisitions – often acquired from young and promising artists – which well supports HAM’s acquisition policies. The collection includes approximately 300 works.

Ilmi Immeli Collection

The museum received Ilmi Immeli’s (1897–1995) donation to its collections in 1995. The collection comprises four artworks from August Sigfrid Keinänen, Berndt Lagerstam, Juho Rissanen, and Werner Åström.

Alice Kaira’s donations

Painter Alice Kaira’s (1913–2006) donated collection is formed by two donations received in 1986 and 1995. The collection comprises 52 paintings and drawings, the latter including several self-portraits.

Aune and Elias Laaksonen Collection

Aune (1906–1984) and Elias Laaksonen’s (1903–1972) collection was bequeathed to the city in 1984. The donation was received in 1985. The collection includes paintings by Fanny Churberg, Elin Danielson-Gambogi, Venny Soldan-Brofeldt, Akseli Gallen-Kallela, and Maria Wiik; and prints by Rembrandt and Renoir. In total, the collection comprises 48 works.

Aune Lindberg Collection

The donated collection of Aune Lindberg, M.Sc. (Economics), comprises five paintings she bequeathed to the City of Helsinki in 1982. The donation was received in 1984. The collection includes works by Anna Holmberg, Johan Knutson, Maria Wiik, and Kaapo Wirtanen as well as one work by an unknown artist.

Anitra Lucander donation

Painter Anitra Lucander (1918–2000) donated her works to the City Art Museum in 1982. The collection includes Lucander’s paintings, drawings, and prints, comprising 96 works in total.

Sune Orell Collection

Master of Arts Sune Orell’s collection was included in the museum’s collections in 1990. Consisting of 35 works, the collection comprises works mainly by Finnish artists from the beginning of the 20th century, such as Jalmari Ruokokoski, Verner Thomén, Ragnar Ekelund, and Alvar and Ragni Cawén. The Sune Orell Collection adds to the Leonard and Katarina Bäcksbacka’s collection donated in 1976 because Orell’s collection includes several sketches of the Bäcksbacka Collection’s works.

Iris Roos-Hasselblatt Collection

The collection was assembled by Emil Alarik Hasselblatt (1874–1954) who worked his whole life in the Helsinki University Library, eventually retiring as senior sub librarian. The heirs of his wife, assistant librarian at the Helsinki University Library, Iris Roos-Hasselblatt, donated the collection to the City of Helsinki in 1973 according to Roos-Hasselblatt’s wishes. The city received the collection in 1974. The collection consists of seven artworks by Harald Brun, Verner Thomén, and Magnus Enckell.

Katriina Salmela-Hasán and David Hasán Collection

Katriina Salmela-Hasán (1944–1995) and David Hasán’s (1947–1997) collection was donated to the City Art Museum in 1998. Comprising more than 300 works of mostly Finnish contemporary art collected mainly in the 1980s, the collection is a great cross section of the period’s art – a Finnish private collection well representing the most popular artists of its time.

Christian Sibelius donation

The works left behind by artist Harry Christian Sibelius (1910–1951) were donated to the museum’s collections in 1985 by the artist’s siblings Rita Sibelius and Marjatta Ahlström. The collection includes 22 works, most of which are charcoal and pencil drawings.

Martta and Reino Sysi Collection

The Martta and Reino Sysi Collection was donated to the art museum’s collections in 1993. The collection of 52 works is significant in quality, adding to the art museum’s collections regarding 19th century art in particular. The collection includes works by Akseli Gallen-Kallela, Oscar Kleineh, Jalmari Ruokokoski, Victor Westerholm, and Albert Edelfelt.

Other collections

Hilda Flodin Plaster Sculpture Collection

Sculptor Hilda Flodin’s (1877–1958) plaster sculpture collection was transferred from the Helsinki City Museum to Helsinki Art Museum in 2018. The collection comprises 47 sculptures focusing on animal limbs and human body parts in particular. Providing a cross section of the artist’s sculptural works, the plaster sculpture collection highlights not only her practices adopted in Paris but also her works from the end of her plastic era.

Harkonmäki Collection

Matti Harkonmäki (b. 1935) sold his collection to the Helsinki City Art Museum in 1991. The collection was mainly assembled in the 1980s, comprising works mostly from that decade. Harkonmäki supplemented his collection especially with social realism from the 1970s, adding political and ideological features to the collection. The collection includes works by Marjatta Hanhijoki, Irina Krohn, Henry Wuorila-Stenberg, and Jarmo Mäkilä.

Accessions collection

HAM’s evolving collection is the museum’s largest in number. New works for the collection are acquired within the appropriation included in the museum’s budget. The collection is mainly enhanced with Finnish contemporary art, but some foreign works have been acquired from the exhibitions the museum organises, for example. Additionally, some older art is occasionally added to the collection to supplement the museum’s donated collections. As a separate body of work, the evolving collection includes Jan Olof Mallander’s collection acquired in 1990.

Artworks at schools

The school collection includes works acquired by schools or donated to schools through the Taidetta kouluihin (“Art for Schools”) association. The collection includes some art-historical gems of Finnish art, such as works by Tyko Sallinen. Works acquired for schools were added to the art museum’s collection in the 1980s after the gradual comprehensive school reform. From this, the museum started managing the collections and maintaining them according to adequate criteria.

J.O. Mallander Collection

Comprising approximately 160 works, the art collection assembled by artist and art critic Jan Olof Mallander (b. 1944) was acquired by the City Art Museum in 1990. Throughout the years 1971–1977, Mallander held the Halvat Huvit gallery on Huvilakatu Street, aiming at displaying phenomena deviating from the mainstream. The collection was formed through Mallander’s personal contacts, relations, and interests, and it includes works by Mallander. The collection was assembled in the 1970s and 1980s, representing the era’s avant-garde and non-commercial ambitions.

Timo Sarpaneva Collection

The collection, comprising 38 glass artworks by designer and sculptor Timo Sarpaneva (1926–2006), was transferred to the Helsinki City Art Museum’s collections in 1995. The collection includes glass objects and sculptures.

Finnish Savings Bank’s Art Collection

In the mid-1990s, the Government Guarantee Fund deposited the collection belonging to the Finnish Savings Banks to various regional art museums. In Uusimaa, the collection was placed at HAM. The right of use was transferred to the museum and the works became part of the museum’s collections. The collection’s other parts have been deposited into other regional art museums around Finland. Each regional art museum received those works that the region’s savings banks had acquired for the collection.

Leonard and Katarina Bäcksbacka Collection

Leonard (1892–1963) and Katarina Bäcksbacka’s (1894–1976, née Tichonowa) art collection is the museum’s most important donated collection. To display it, the city built the Art Museum Meilahti in 1976. Master of Arts Leonard Bäcksbacka and his wife Katarina Bäcksbacka assembled the works for the collection. Leonard Bäcksbacka founded the art gallery Taidesalonki, established in 1915, which became one of Finland’s most important galleries and leaders in the field of art. The long-term work for Taidesalonki lay the foundations for the art collection. From the very beginning, Taidesalonki’s core has been to support young artists and maintain good relations with the artists. The gallery’s artistic approach has remained consistent over time, with a central focus on picturesque and representational paintings based on the power of colours.

An active collector, Leonard Bäcksbacka dealt with art for nearly five decades. The collection was carefully considered and assembled, and Leonard Bäcksbacka had strong faith in the collection’s artists. Eventually, Bäcksbacka began to consider the idea of displaying the collected works publicly. After his death, Bäcksbacka’s heirs decided to offer the collection to the City of Helsinki. Katarina Bäcksbacka continued to grow the collection after her husband’s death. The collection was further enhanced with some works by Finnish sculptors. The Bäcksbacka collection provides a comprehensive and high-quality cross section of Finnish art at the beginning of the 20th century, also reflecting Bäcksbacka’s conception of what was important.

The collection mostly consists of Finnish artworks from the 1900s, many of them considered as gems of Finnish art. The artists, such as Tyko Sallinen, Marcus Collin, Jalmari Ruokokoski, and Ellen Thesleff, are among the most significant artists of our art history. In addition to Finnish art, the collection includes French art from the 1930s and 1940s. Originally comprising 448 works, the collection was complemented with an additional donation of 57 of Marcus Collin’s pastel illustrations for Aleksis Kivi’s The Seven Brothers in 1977.

About the collection

HAM looks after the art collection of the City of Helsinki

HAM looks after an art collection that belongs to all residents of Helsinki, consisting of 10,000 works of art.

The majority of the collection consists of Finnish art from the 20th and 21st centuries, but it also includes some older Finnish masterpieces as well as international art. From the very beginning, HAM has been investing in young and creative artists who contribute to the creation of new art history.

The collection consists of several individual donated collections as well as the city’s own acquisitions.

Leonard and Katarina Bäcksbacka’s collection of donated artworks is the heart of HAM. The collection, donated in 1976, includes several gems of Finnish art history, such as Tove Jansson’s Before the Masquerade (1943) Tyko Sallinen’s Mirri (1910).

Search from the collection

You can currently find more than 1,800 works from the collections of the HAM Helsinki Art Museum in Finna.

Where can you see the collection?

Collection in exhibitions

HAM displays works from its collections in changing exhibitions organised in Tennis Palace, and part of the collection is permanently on display there.The core of the museum, the Leonard and Katarina Bäcksbacka Collection, is located in dedicated halls on the museum’s first floor. In addition, Tove Jansson’s frescos Party in the City and Party in the Countryside are permanently on display in the museum.

Works are also loaned out to other exhibition organisers to be displayed in Finnish and international exhibitions.

Around the city

The HAM Collection includes over 10,000 works, of which about 2,500 are found the city’s in public spaces, both indoors and outside. The most visible part of the collection are the public sculptures located in the streets, squares and parks of the city. Art is present in the everyday lives of the people of Helsinki. It is everywhere that local residents, visitors, tourists and city employees find themselves in their daily life. The aim is for art to have an equal presence in all parts of the city. Through art, HAM hopes to encourage and bring joy to the citizens of Helsinki.

The collection online

HAM has published approximately 1,800 artworks from its collection in the national Finna.fi search service. Finna is a search service for museums, libraries and archives in Finland. On HAM’s Finna page, visitors can explore works by searching for artists, topics, techniques, or various categories. The categories include exhibitions at the Tennis Palace, the Bäcksbacka Collection, and public art outdoors in the streets and indoors in schools, libraries, and day-care centres. The page is continuously updated with new works.

The warden of an art collection that belongs to the people of Helsinki, HAM works to make its collections more accessible and find new audiences. An additional goal is to increase domestic and international awareness of the collections. A channel for these goals is Finna, a free-of-charge and agile database, which is available without registration.

How did it all begin?

The City of Helsinki’s art collection is started when the City Council accepts a memorial statue of poet Johan Ludvig Runeberg, sculpted by Walter Runeberg.

Collection policy

The collection policy, also known as the collection policy programme, is the museum’s long-term action plan that describes the museum’s objectives, focus and development measures. It also details how accessioning, recording, storage and displaying as well as conservation and research are organised at the museum.

All of HAM’s practices reflect the collection policy. It ensures that the art collection grows systematically, the works are preserved properly and that art is accessible to all, for example in exhibitions as well as in outdoor and indoor spaces in the city.

The collection policy is updated regularly. The current policy from 2017, now being updated, is available below.

How does the collection build up?

HAM adds to the art collection with the help of various appropriations by acquiring existing and commissioned works of art.

From the very beginning, accessioning has focused on creating a collection of Finnish contemporary art. The share of older art has been kept low in accessioning, focusing on supplementing the museum’s donated collections. The museum has also added some foreign works to its collection, primarily from exhibitions held by the art museum. The collection is grown through acquisitions and donations.

The acquisition guidelines and various appropriations are described in the collection policy, which is updated regularly.

Art acquisitions

The City of Helsinki allocates an annual sum of money for art acquisitions. In charge of adding items to the city’s art collection, the HAM Helsinki Art Museum Foundation submits art acquisition proposals to the city authorities.

The museum’s Public Art Unit provides expert advice on the Percentage Financing and Public Art acquisitions. Since the 19th century, donations have been a significant factor in building up the city’s art collections. Read more about public art here.

Donations

Donations have been a significant part of the art collection since the 19th century.

The core of Helsinki’s art collection is the donated Leonard and Katarina Bäcksbacka Collection, consisting of approximately 430 individual works collected by art connoisseur and gallerist Leonard Bäcksbacka. In addition to this, the city’s collection also includes other high-quality donated collections as well as individually donated works. The city also receives public works of art as donations.

In donation projects, HAM serves as the expert, the party issuing statements and, when a donation is completed, as the recipient. When accepting donations of public works of art, the placement of the work is negotiated between the art museum and the city’s Urban Environment Division.

Conservators and technicians

HAM takes care of the collection of art belonging to the people of Helsinki in a very concrete way. The beloved works of art are constantly being transported, stored, hung, protected and conserved.

HAM’s collection is maintained by conservators who monitor the conditions of art storage rooms and exhibition facilities and, together with the museum’s technicians, make sure that works of art are handled correctly in all situations. The conservators also inspect and refurbish pieces of art every time they are loaned out to other museums or exhibitions.

HAM maintains public sculptures in cooperation with the city’s Urban Environment Division. The maintenance and service of outdoor sculptures includes conservation, repair, cleaning and waxing. During park maintenance and roadworks, the sculptures are put in storage and conserved.

The statues of the two greatly admired Finnish long-distance runners are placed in the immediate vicinity of the Olympic Stadium. One of the statues is the one dedicated to Lasse Viren (1949-), who was the first ever sportsman to win Olympic gold in both the 10,000 metre and the 5,000 metre races in two consecutive Games.

The spirit of physical culture and nationalism, which this statue symbolizes, is not however exclusive to the 20th century. The significance of athletes and sport for national-awareness and identity are echoed from the city-states of ancient Greece – where athletes were celebrated as national heroes and memorials were dedicated to them.

Whilst Wäinö Aaltonen’s statue of Paavo Nurmi strives to depict Nurmi’s revolutionary hip movement (disguised in Classicist and idealist expression), Terho Sakki’s (1930-1997) ideals are, however, different. The statue of Lasse Viren is characterised by expressive and unpolished forms. They have been interpreted as a sign of the wasting work threatened by uncertainty which always precedes victory. The statue not only depicts the runner – it also narrates his development into a world-class athlete.

The sculpture is cast in bronze. The work belongs to the collections of the Helsinki Art Museum.

Pehr Evind Svinhufvud (1861-1944) was the third President of the Republic from 1931 to 1937. In November 1917, Svinhufvud formed the so-called Independence Senate which issued the declaration of independence for Finland in December. Svinhufvud also led the delegation which travelled to St. Petersburg in 1917 to secure recognition for Finnish independence from Lenin’s government.

The statue of Svinhufvud was commissioned in 1957 from sculptor Wäinö Aaltonen (1894-1966) by the P. E. Svinhufvud Memorial Foundation. The statue was unveiled on Svinhufvud’s centennial on 15 December 1961 and it belongs to the collections of the Helsinki Art Museum.

The statue depicts President Svinhufvud with his left hand in his pocket and his right hand clenched on top of a column. The pose is similar to the one which Aaltonen used for the statue of another president, K. J. Ståhlberg. Svinhufvud’s likeness is typical of the representational tradition which predominated in Finnish monumental sculpture in the early 20th century. The statue is bronze, the pedestal is made of red granite.

The statue talks to you: http://suomenpresidentit.fi/svinhufvud/?lang=en