National Romantic Karelianism

Finnish Realism as a concept therefore differs in many respects from what is usually meant by this term in art history. Particularly social consciousness, which is often linked with Realism, was rare in Finnish Realism. Finland, which was still very much an agrarian and rural country, had no large cities with derelict slums against which Realism could have revolted. There was no industrial production with exploited workers that the Realist might depict. And Finnish art was still so unstable and lacking in self-confidence that it hadn't yet reached the stage of academism. Art in Finland still had its great common social task; the age of patriotic revival continued.

The plein air painting of the 1880s, which had addressed itself to reality, often aiming at objectivity, was followed by a movement that inclined towards subjectivity, Romanticism and mysticism. National Romanticism, which formed a continuation to the national revival movement, was a powerful, all-embracing phenomenon that with most artists of the time became integrated to earlier painting. The country's own prehistory, folk art, Karelia and the Kalevala inspired artists of all professions. In Karelia there still existed an ancient Finnish world, genuine and untainted. There the age of the Kalevala lives on in everyday chores, there a farmer's wife might recite spells in Kalevala metre while driving the cattle out to pasture. Karelianism was the most important manifestation of National Romanticism in Finland. The Kalevala, for which the Finland of the 1860s and R.W. Ekman had unsuccesfully tried to produce illustrations, became a deep source of inspiration for the artists of the 1890s.

National Romantic Karelianism