Juho Mäkelä

Juha Mäkelä was a member of the expressionist group, ”The November group”, that had grown around the artist Tyko Sallinen (1879-1955). It was officially founded in 1917 although its members had known each other for many years. Other members were Ivar Alto, Alvar Calwén, Wäinö Aaltonen, Marcus Collin, Jalmari Ruokokoski, Valle Rosenberg, Wiliam Lönnberg and Juha Rissanen. Their first exhibition took place already in 1916 and the 5th and final in 1924.

Mäkelä studied at Finska konstföreningen between 1904–1907 and first exhibited in 1907. His expressionistic style is thoroughly expressed in a selfportrait from 1910 (fig. 1).

Mäkelä is, however, especially known as a landscape painter. In 1915 he abandoned oilpainting and focused entirely on watercolors. The present work is probably one of his last known works executed in oil.

In 1927 Mäkelä joined the theosophical movement known as ”Rosencreutzarna”. His art from then on went through a radical change and his landscape reflect a pantheistic approach to nature. This tendency, however, had already been visible in his earlier works, not seldom imbued with spirituality, which the present work is a splendid example of.