Ferdinand von Wright

SUMMER LANDSCAPE.

Sign. 1877. Oil on canvas, 80x105

With his studies of birds in their natural habitat, Ferdinand von Wright attained immediate popularity among Finnish art lovers. This was in part due to the exact, detailed rendering of the birds; every feather was minutely depicted. Today, von Wright remains a highly regarded artist, and his painting "The fighting capercailles" , executed in 1886, is considered to be one of the all time best loved paintings by a Finnish artist. Although all the von Wright brothers became well-known painters, Ferdinand was the only one the three brothers to have had any formal artistic training. He studied painting at art academies both abroad, in Dresden and Stockholm, and later in Finland where he was R.W. Ekman’s pupil. Ferdinand von Wright also developed great skill as a landscape painter who often depicted the area around Haminanlax, his beloved home, not far from Kuopio. During his travels in Finland, Von Wright eagerly painted the landscapes that he discovered. Nature was his greatest source of inspiration, he rarely painted people, and when he did, they were usually assigned the role of walkers-on whose main task was to balance the composition of the painting. In Helsingfors Tidningar, Zacharias Topelius praised View of Haminanlax, painted in 1853, describing the painting as being “a new verse of Vårt Land” and S. Elmgren wrote in Litteraturbladet that “ Never has a Finnish landscape been painted with such realism and such artistic idealism as can be seen here, in this masterpiece.” Inspired by national romantic ideals, artists travelled into the wilderness in order to paint primordial, untouched Finnish nature. These paintings became important visual symbols for the young, struggling nation. Nothing captures the Finnish soul as well as a lake landscape.
During the 1870s Ferdinand von Wright’s health began to fail him, but this didn’t prevent him from painting, he worked continually up to his death in 1906. Much of his work from this period is of extremely high standard. The painting A summer landscape shows the artist’s skill in capturing every shade and every detail with photographic precision. Each strand of grass is painted separately, the play of light in the foliage of the birches and the reflection of the summer sky in the water create a romantic atmosphere. The painting captures the essence of sunny, peaceful summer days. Everyone can recognize this scene; it is a summer landscape that we all carry in our hearts.