Pekka Halonen

Chief Forester Tauno Tiainen, Lahti; through inheritance within the same family.

"Pekka Halonen", Helsinki Art House, 15.3.-10.5.1981.
"Pekka Halonen", Ateneum Art Museum, 7 March - 24 August 2008

"From Farm Boys to Artists", Halosenniemi Museum, 2 May - 2 September 2018.

"In the Shade of the Forest", Halosenniemi Museum, 15 September - 29 November 2020

"Scholarships from the Finnish State, Cheers! - Väinö Blomstedt as a Guest of Pekka Halonen", Halosenniemi Museum, 3 May - 29 August 2021

"Artist Life in Halosenniemi", Halosenniemi Museum, 8 March - 28 August 2022

"Sounding Halosenniemi", Halosenniemi Museum, 11 October 2022 - 15 January 2023

"Variable Weather Expected - Women Artists as Guests of Pekka Halonen", Halosenniemi Museum, 4 May - 27 August 2023

"Million Pine - Landscape Paintings by Pekka Halonen and Contemporaries", Halosenniemi Museum, 3 May - 15 September 2024

"Celebrations and Everyday Life in the Artist's Home", Halosenniemi Museum, 24 September 2024 - 21 April 2025

Aune Lindström, "Pekka Halonen-Elämä ja Teokset", WSOY 1957, no. 411. Illustrated on p. 203.
"Pekka Halonen", Ateneum Art Museum publications nr 52, 2008, nr. 273. Depicted on p.264.

The artist Pekka Halonen is closely associated with Finnish art, known for his realistic and simple depictions of the Finnish people and nature. Halonen was born in 1865 in Lapinlahti and belonged to a large farming family with several talented artists and musicians as relatives. In 1890, he received a scholarship that enabled him to travel to Paris and study at the Académie Julian. Halonen then continued his studies under Paul Gauguin at the Académie Colarossi in Italy. Like several contemporary Finnish artists, such as Akseli Gallen-Kallela, Halonen eventually returned to his homeland to explore themes in the Finnish wilderness.

Early in his career, Halonen primarily worked in the French Impressionist style, but later his painting evolved into a more monumental approach with subdued colors, often depicting themes from Finnish rural life like 'Road Builders in Karelia' (1900). Colors dominated Halonen's work; he was a virtuoso colorist. The Finnish nature held a central role in Halonen's art, and in his numerous landscape paintings, one can also discern clear influences from symbolism and japonism.