Robert Wilhelm Ekman

• Ekman, Robert Wilhelm: Kreeta Haapasalo Playing the Kantele in a Peasant Cottage, 1868, 75x105, oil, canvas (A I 42) ( 46.4 kB )

Here we see a group of guests invited to spend a pleasant summer's evening together. The sun is shining in from the window, it is almost six o'clock. The guests are rather a mixed crowd: a soldier and a fisherman, two fine young ladies with a baby and a peasant woman playing the kantele, a traditional Finnish harp. The hostess' daughter helps set the table while her son whittles, scattering woodchips all over the floor.

The guest of honour is Kreeta Haapasalo, a songstress and musician once famous throughout Finland. Kreeta supported her family during the great famine by singing and playing the kantele.

There is a simple explanation to the unusual gathering: Ekman was not interested in the hostess or her guests as individuals. – Instead he wanted to paint a portrait of the Finnish people. This explains the presence of child and adult, rich and poor, peasant and gentlefolk. This dreamlike vision of a peacefully united Finland is watched over by a portrait of Czar Alexander I (who ruled Finland at the time) to which the artist has added his own signature. A second signature lies concealed on the pail of water beside the stove.

Robert Wilhelm Ekman : Kreeta Haapasalo Playing the Kantele in a Peasant Cottage