Ali Munsterhjelm F478

Ali Munsterhjelm (1873-1944) was a Finnish painter, best known for his bright landscape paintings of Turku. After running away to sea for a while at the age of 17, he applied to the Finnish Art Association's drawing school at the Ateneum. His studies soon continued at renowned art academies in Paris. The artist finally settled in Turku, where his subjects became the banks of the Aura River and the surroundings of the Cathedral. Ali Munsterhjelm was a committed outdoor painter, and for health reasons he occasionally had to take his easel to warmer climates. He continued to travel by sea, and port motifs also fascinated him abroad. In the 1920s, Munsterhjelm moved to Helsinki, where he painted especially the shores of Ruoholahti and Jätkäsaari.

Ali Munsterhjelm cared little for artistic traditions or theories. He enthusiastically embraced new modern art movements, and the dark colours of his early career were quickly replaced by a clean and bright palette, influenced by his years in Paris. This theme auction includes several examples of the artist's early works, in which his skills as a colourist shine through. The strong handling of colour and light, acquired during his study trips to the South, works equally well in depictions of warm summertime and cold winter days. Colour and light remained the basis of the artist's output until the end of his career.