Collections
The art collection of the Finnish National Gallery is the most extensive in the country. Its historical layers go all the way back to the mid-19th century when the Finnish Art Society was responsible for forming and accruing the first public art collection in Finland. The Finnish Art Society started collection activities in 1849. They strived to form a model collection for their Drawing School.
In 1868, art collection accrual was added to the Art Society rules. After the Art Society moved to the Ateneum building in 1888, its collection started earning recognition and status as a museum collection. The collection was placed in a trust in 1939, and the Finnish Fine Arts Academy Foundation took over its administration.
The current collection covers a wide spectrum of art history from medieval icons to the latest contemporary art.
The art collection of the Finnish National Gallery was nationalised in 1990
The nationalisation process was preceded by a comprehensive review during which the entire collection and movable property possessed by the Finnish Fine Arts Academy Foundation was catalogued. The reviewers’ sources included inventory records, registers and lists. They also studied the exhibition items in the Ateneum Art Museum and Sinebrychoff Art Museum’s exhibition halls and storage rooms, the museum storage located in Vantaa, and the graphics and drawings storage located in the Kansakoulukatu premises in Helsinki city centre.
The administrative and storage duties of the collection were divided between three museums – the Ateneum Art Museum, the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma and the Sinebrychoff Art Museum – and the Central Art Archives. The Finnish National Gallery collection is a unique collection consisting of over 35,000 artefacts, approximately half a million images, and shelf loads of archive materials and documents, such as artists’ letters.
The Sinebrychoff Art Museum houses old international art from the 14th century to the early 19th century. The Ateneum Art Museum houses pre-1960 Finnish art and international art from the 19th and 20th centuries. The Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma houses post-1960 Finnish art and 21st century international art. However, this division is not rigid and is subject to occasional adjustment.
The Finnish National Gallery collection is augmented through acquisitions and charitable donations. The museum’s collection policy specifies the criteria for purchased and donated artefacts. All objects must meet these criteria before they are added to the collection.
The funding earmarked for augmenting the collections of the Finnish National Gallery museums has fluctuated annually since the nationalisation. Limited public funding means that, in order to augment the collection with outstanding pieces of art, the museum needs help from private art collectors and organisations.
Private art collectors have supported the formation of the collection right from the very beginning, since the days of the Finnish Art Society. In the 19th century, the first charitable donations were by parties close to the Art Society – board members and artists’ organisations. Part of the collection of Baron Otto Klinckowström, an Art Society board member, was donated to the Art Society in 1851. The widow of painter Werner Holmberg donated one of his paintings in 1861 and in 1874 the estate of the Aland-based painter Karl Emanuel Jansson was bequeathed to the Art Society.
The first substantial contribution was the collection bequeathed to the people of Finland by Licentiate in Medicine Herman Frithiof Antell in 1893. In the Finland of that time his collection was an exceptionally diverse one. It consisted of art, items of special cultural and historic interest and coin collections, and also included a large sum of money to be used for augmenting the collection. The art collection was deposited at the Finnish Art Society premises, while all other items found a home at the premises of the predecessor of the National Museum of Finland.
The museum has received numerous donations
The museum has also received numerous charitable donations during its existence as the Finnish National Gallery. Art collectors as well as artists and their inheritors all make charitable donations to the collection.
Also bequests augment the collections of the Finnish National Gallery museums. Bequests to the Ateneum Art Museum include the Wäinö Wallin Collection (1995), a donation consisting of almost the entire artistic production of artist Aune Mikkonen (2001), a donation by Ester and Jalo Sihtola’s Art Foundation consisting of 505 artefacts (2001), the Beatrice Granberg Collection of 98 artefacts (2002, State Treasury donation), Yrjö and Nanny Kaunisto’s donation of 78 artefacts (2005) with unique paintings by Helene Schjerfbeck, and the Rolando and Siv Pieraccini Collection of 550 works of Italian 20th century art (2008).
Collecting older international art is rare among Finnish art collectors, because it requires expertise, significant funds, and close contacts with art dealers of old international art. Therefore, the museum has received donations of older international art only occasionally. The Sinebrychoff Art Museum collections, such as the donated collections of Hjalmar Linder, Otto Wilhelm Klinckowström, Eliel Aspelin-Haapkylä, Carl Emil Göhle, Herman Frithiof Antell and Carl von Haartman, are complemented by the few acquisitions made by Friends of Ateneum at the beginning of the 20th century, Mikko and Mary Mannio’s miniature collection and Beatrice Granberg’s furniture and item collection (2002). The museum also houses Ester and Jalo Sihtola’s collection of old international art (2001) that added a total of 16 paintings and drawings to the collection.
The first, and also the most symbolic, contribution to the newly established Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma was the donation made by the Porkkana Association, founded by art history students and artists. This collection, which was collected via mail, consisted of over 100 small-scale works by international artists, including Richard Long, Nancy Holt and Christo. The Kiasma Collection (1998), which was based on the collection of Finnish businessman and art collector Pentti Kouri, brought much larger international artworks to the museum. The collection comprised a total of 62 works by 38 artists.
Artists’ estates are significant resources for building up the existing collections of the Finnish National Gallery museums, both from artistic and research perspectives. Bequeathed estates include a collection of works by Kalervo Palsa (1999) donated by Maj-Lis Pitkänen. The SKOP Bank Collection of 700 works (2002) enhances Kiasma’s permanent collection of Finnish art.