Like Becker, many of his colleagues began their studies in Düsseldorf, moving subsequently to Paris. Victor Westerholm (1860-1919), Finland's last notable frequenter of Düsseldorf, was born in the same year in which Werner Holmberg, the first Finnish artist to go there, died. Westerholm carries forward Holmberg's tradition in the spirit of the new era. He was first and foremost a plein air painter who became interested in Impressionism soon after the mid '80s in Paris. In Finland Imressionism had been received with great reserve. Finnish artists who had visited Paris made very negative or pronouncedly cautious statements about it. The fact that Westerholm had joined that disapproved movement did therefore not mean that there was any widespread interest towards Impressionism in Finland. This tendency was cut short by strong favouring of National Romanticism.
Westerholm's answer to his colleagues' Karelianism was the Åland
archipelago. On his initiative the first artist colony in Finland was
founded in Önningeby, Åland. The Önningeby artists were above all
experimental plein air painters, some of whom even stayed the winter
on the islands in order to study and paint its wintery landscapes.Victor
Westerholm's
The Hills of Knutsboda
is representative
of the period's National Romantic landscape, the search for powerful and
primordial experience of nature.
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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
