One of Rissanen's most depressing recollection from early boyhood was the death of his father. Returning home from a drinking bout he couldn't make it home and froze to death on the ice of a nearby lake. He was carried home by inmates of an adjacent prison. Rissanen intended his Childhood Memory to be a triptych, telling the story of his father's death in three stages. The painting was never finished, only numerous studies and preliminary sketches remain: the mother watching the body being carried with Juho's little sisters crying at her feet and the confused Juho looking on; or the mother dragging the coffin on a sleigh with the children giving what help they can.
Savonkylä, its people, its scenery and its life were the inspiration of Juho Rissanen's art. For a long time he remained untouched by travels abroad. Returning home from Italy he spoke of classical ruins as 'decayed buildings full of obnoxious air'. Neither were there many places in Finland to compete with the scenery of Savonkylä. When Pekka Halonen invited Rissanen to come to paint in Halosenniemi by lake Tuusulanjärvi, Rissanen couldn't understand what there was to paint; to his mind Tuusulanjärvi was a mere 'stinking puddle'.
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
