Ateneum is an

art museum An art museum or art gallery is a building or space for the display of art, usually from the museum's own collection. It might be in public or private ownership and may be accessible to all or have restrictions in place. Although primarily co ...

Helsinki Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the Capital city, capital, primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Finland, most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of U ...

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bot ...

and one of the three museums forming the Finnish National Gallery. It is located in the centre of Helsinki on the south side of Rautatientori square close to Helsinki Central railway station. It has the biggest collections of classical art in Finland. Before 1991 the Ateneum building also housed the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts and

University of Art and Design Helsinki A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, th ...

Collections

The collections of Ateneum include Finnish art extensively from 18th-century rococo portraiture to the experimental art movements of the 20th century. The collections also include some 650 international works of art. One of them is

Vincent van Gogh Vincent Willem van Gogh (; 30 March 185329 July 1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who posthumously became one of the most famous and influential figures in Western art history. In a decade, he created about 2,100 artworks, inc ...

's ''Street in Auvers-sur-Oise'' (1890), which when deposited to Ateneum in 1903 made it the first museum collection in the world to include a Vincent van Gogh painting. Other notable works include

Albert Edelfelt Albert Gustaf Aristides Edelfelt (21 July 1854 – 18 August 1905) was a Finnish-Swedish painter noted for his naturalistic style and Realist approach to art. He lived in the Grand Duchy of Finland and made Finnish culture visible abroad, before ...

’s ''The Luxembourg Garden'' (1887),

Akseli Gallen-Kallela Akseli Gallen-Kallela (26 April 1865 – 7 March 1931) was a Finnish painter who is best known for his illustrations of the ''Kalevala'', the Finnish national epic. His work is considered a very important aspect of the Finnish national ident ...

’s ''Aino Triptych'' (1891), Eero Järnefelt’s ''Under the Yoke (Burning the Brushwood)'' (1893) and

Hugo Simberg Hugo Gerhard Simberg (24 June 1873 – 12 July 1917) was a Finnish symbolist painter and graphic artist. Life and career Simberg was born on 24 June 1873, at Hamina (in the original Swedish: ''Fredrikshamn''), Finland, the son of Colonel Nico ...

’s ''Wounded Angel'' (1903).

Notable works

Architecture

The Ateneum building was designed by Theodor Höijer and completed in 1887. The facade of Ateneum is decorated with statues and reliefs which contain a lot of symbols. Above the main entrance, in the second floor, are busts of three famous classical artists: architect

Bramante Donato Bramante ( , , ; 1444 – 11 April 1514), born as Donato di Pascuccio d'Antonio and also known as Bramante Lazzari, was an Italian architect and painter. He introduced Renaissance architecture to Milan and the High Renaissance st ...

, painter

Raphael Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino, better known as Raphael (; or ; March 28 or April 6, 1483April 6, 1520), was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. His work is admired for its clarity of form, ease of composition, and visual ...

and sculptor Phidias. Above the busts, in the third floor, four caryatids support the pediment. These symbolize the four classical art forms: sculpture, painting, geometry, and architecture.http://vanderkrogt.net/statues/object.php?webpage=ST&record=fi117 Façade decoration of the Ateneum The facade culminates in a collage of sculptures in which the Goddess of Art,

Pallas Athene Athena or Athene, often given the epithet Pallas, is an ancient Greek goddess associated with wisdom, warfare, and handicraft who was later syncretized with the Roman goddess Minerva. Athena was regarded as the patron and protectress of v ...

, blesses the products of the different art forms. Below the pediment's collage is the Latin phrase '' Concordia res parvae crescunt'' (''With concord small things increase''), which is usually understood in Helsinki to refer to the long-lasting battle of the Finnish art circles in order to establish the museum. All the statues were by Carl Eneas Sjöstrand. In between the second floor windows are 16 medallion-style reliefs by Ville Vallgren representing some of Finland's most well known creative people of his day, including painter Aleksander Lauréus,

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 (1806–18 ...

and the architect

Carl Ludvig Engel Carl Ludvig Engel, or Johann Carl Ludwig Engel (3 July 1778 – 14 May 1840), was a German architect whose most noted work can be found in Helsinki, which he helped rebuild. His works include most of the buildings around the capital's monumental ...

. Other ornamental elements were sculpted by

Magnus von Wright Magnus von Wright (13 June 1805 – 5 July 1868) was a Swedish-Finnish painter and educator. In addition to bird illustrations, he was also known for his landscapes. Biography Magnus von Wright was born at the village of Haminalahti in Kuo ...

. The Ateneum building is owned by

Senate Properties sv, Senatfastigheter , logo = Senate logo.gif , type = Liikelaitos Senate Properties 2009(Finnish). (≈ unincorporated entity, unincorporated state-owned enterprise) Ministry of Finance 2009. Senate Properties 2009/ref ...

( fi, Senaatti-kiinteistöt), the government real estate provider.

References

External links

Ateneum Art Museum
within

Google Arts & Culture Google Arts & Culture (formerly Google Art Project) is an online platform of high-resolution images and videos of artworks and cultural artifacts from partner cultural organizations throughout the world. It utilizes high-resolution image technol ...

* {{Helsinki Cityscape 1887 establishments in Finland Museums in Helsinki Art museums and galleries in Finland Art museums established in 1887 Kluuvi

Collections

Notable works

Architecture

See also

References

External links