Finnish National Gallery ( fi, Suomen Kansallisgalleria, sv, Finlands Nationalgalleri) is the largest art museum institution of

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 ...

. It consists of the

Ateneum Ateneum is an art museum in Helsinki, Finland 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 ha ...

, an art museum;

Kiasma ) , established = (Museum of Contemporary Art) (opening of Kiasma building) , dissolved = , location = Helsinki, Finland , type = Art museum , accreditation = , key_holdings = , co ...

, a contemporary art museum; and the Sinebrychoff Art Museum, a historic house and art museum. The organization's functions are supported by the conservation department, the administration and services department and Kehys, the art museum development department.

History

On January 27, 1846, the Finnish Art Society was established. In 1848, it established the Helsinki Drawing School and in 1852, the organization took over Turku Drawing School. In the 19th-century, the organization's collections grew through donations. In 1893, , , and Karl Emanuel Jannsson made significant contributions to the organization. The Ateneum building was completed in the spring of 1887 and the Finnish Art Society's operations were moved there. In 1921, Paul and Fanny Sinebrychoff donated approximately 900 works to the Society, creating the basis of what would become the Sinebrychoff Museum. In 1939, the Fine Arts Academy of Finland was established. That same year, the Ateneum art collection and Sinebrychoff Museum were closed due to the Winter War. The Ateneum art collection reopened in 1946 and was renamed the Ateneum Art Museum in 1958. The Sinebrychoff Museum reopened in 1960. In 1990, the Finnish National Gallery was established to manage the collection. That same year, the Museum of Contemporary Art was founded. In 1996, construction of a building for the Museum of Contemporary Art began and in 1998, the

Kiasma ) , established = (Museum of Contemporary Art) (opening of Kiasma building) , dissolved = , location = Helsinki, Finland , type = Art museum , accreditation = , key_holdings = , co ...

opened. In 2014, the Finnish National Gallery reorganized as a public foundation that operates the Ateneum Art Museum, Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, and Sinebrychoff Art Museum as museum units.

Functions

The mission of the Finnish National Gallery is to further the cultural heritage of Finnish

visual arts The visual arts are art forms such as painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics, photography, video, filmmaking, design, crafts and architecture. Many artistic disciplines such as performing arts, conceptual art, and textile art ...

, to enforce the significance of visual culture in contemporary times, and to develop the art museum industry. They also maintain and develop Finland's largest collection of art and the knowledge and research archives of their field.

Collections

The Ateneum is a predominantly Finnish Art Museum with paintings by leading Finnish painters like

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 ...

, Eero Järnefelt,

Helene Schjerfbeck Helena Sofia (Helene) Schjerfbeck (; July 10, 1862 – January 23, 1946) was a Finnish painter. A modernist painter, she is known for her realist works and self-portraits, and also for her landscapes and still lifes. Throughout her long life, h ...

, Pekka Halonen,

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 ...

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 ...

, and Fanny Churberg. The Sinebrychoff Art Museum has foreign paintings by painters such as Giovanni Boccati, Giovanni Castiglione, Govaert Flinck, Rembrandt, Jan Cook, Goyen, Carl Wilhelm de Hamilton, Lucas Cranach the Elder, Jurgen Ovens, Frans Wouters, Hieronymous Francken the Second, Joshua Reynolds, Antoine Watteau, François Boucher, Carl Von Breda, Alexander Roslin, and Jacob Bjorck. It has an appreciable collection of Swedish miniatures.

References

External links

The website of the Finnish National Gallery
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The Ateneum Art Museum
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The Museum of Contemporary Art, Kiasma
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The Sinebrychoff Art Museum
Museums in Helsinki Art museums and galleries in Finland National galleries {{Finland-struct-stub