When the fifteen-year old Johannes Takanen (1849-1885) first exhibited works in Helsinki, the catalogue mentioned him as Crofter's Son Takanen. With this brand the Finnish Art Society wished to indicate that here was one of the society's 'finds', a natural-born talent sought out from among the common people and helped along by funds from the Art Society. This impecunious and unschooled 'shepherd lad who carved wooden animals' developed into a pioneer of Finnish Realist sculpture.
Takanen's favourite material was marble, an almost unattainable dream for a penniless sculptor; during his shortlived career he managed to carve only four of his works in this stone.
Johannes Takanen's three main works are representations of beautiful maidens with origins in three totally different literary sources. Aino (1876) is from the Kalevala, Rebecca (1877) from the Bible and Andromeda (1879-82) from Greek mythology. They are all solitary, still, withdrawn.
Aino represented not so much the maiden from Kalevala familiar to most Finns as Takanen's tribute to natural, realistic beauty. Here an Italian woman had become the model for the Aino of Finnish folk poetry. This was immediately noticed by the Finnish public. Its members deplored the fact that this Aino was not a typical representative of Finnish flaxen-haired womankind. But Takanen, faithful to his Realist calling, found it impossible to change anything against nature.
Aino, who had been promised to old Väinämöinen, the hero of the Kalevala, had decided, after crying for three days, to rather choose death than marry the undesireable old man. Aino has stripped off her clothes and gazes at the far distance of the water where the maids of Vellamo beckon her to death.
The artist never realized Aino beyond the plaster version. It was
carved in marble ten years later, after the artist's premature death.
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The Decades of Realism and National Romanticism 
Walter Runeberg : Apollo ja Marsyas Amor ja Bacchus lapsina Johannes Takanen : Aino Andromeda National Romantic Karelianism Adolf von Becker : Äidiniloa Victor Westerholm : Knutsbodan vuoret Kukkivia hedelmäpuita, Suresnes Albert Edelfelt : Ellen Edelfelt Kuningatar Blanka Lapsen ruumissaatto Pasteurin muotokuva, harjoitelma Pariisin Luxemburgin puistossa Ruokolahden eukkoja kirkonmäellä Gunnar Berndtson : Peilin ääressä Morsiamen laulu Aukusti Uotila : Lammaspaimen Kalastuspaikka kuutamolla Akseli Gallen-Kallela : Kullervon kirous Ilmarinen kyntää kyisen pellon Poika ja varis Mädäntynyt kuha Aino-taru Lemminkäisen äiti Velisurmaaja Tytön pää, Pikku Anna Kevät Démasquée Eero Järnefelt : Taiteilijan pojan muotokuva Matilda Wreden muotokuva Kaislikkoranta Pielisjärven syysmaisema Raatajat rahanalaiset Pekka Halonen : Viulunsoittaja Oijustie Avannolla Syksyinen raita Tienraivaajia Karjalassa Helene Schjerfbeck : Vihreä asetelma Istuva valkopukuinen nainen Toipilas Kansakoulutyttö Mustataustainen omakuva Omakuva 1944 Maria Wiik : Hilda Wiikin muotokuva Maailmalle Juho Rissanen : Sokea Povarissa Rauta kaulassa Lapsuuden muisto
