Art collections

The Pekka Halonen art collection at the Tuusula Museum includes paintings, graphic art and sketches. The earliest works in the collection were acquired in 1949, when the municipality of Tuusula purchased the artist’s studio home in Halosenniemi. The collection has been supplemented with donations, long-term deposits and purchases. The most significant deposit is the Pekka Halonen Society’s collection, which is based on a bequest from the artist’s son, Antti Halonen, in 1989.

The collection includes early depictions of folk life, such as Holy Day in the New House and The Kantele Player and the Girl. Works from Pekka Halonen’s symbolist period include Double Portrait and Three Holy Men in the Forest. Halonen’s beloved winter landscapes are represented by the paintings Moonlight and Snowy Trees, as well as Halonen’s mode ist late works Winter Lake Landscape and Pine Tree in Snowfall. The paintings related to Rantatie in Tuusula are Dog Howling at the Moon, On the River Tuonela and Children’s Prams in the Garden. 

Martta Wendelin’s art collection consists of approximately 70 paintings and drawings of free art. The earliest works in the collection date from the 1910s and the most recent from the 1960s. The collection is expanded through donations, long-term deposits and purchases. The collection includes watercolours and oil paintings from Wendelin’s travels and places of residence, such as Helsinki, Porvoo and Tuusula, as well as portraits, landscapes, cityscapes and floral paintings.

Martta Wendelin’s art collection has been deposited with the museum. It comprises around 40 oil and watercolour paintings, drawings and two illustrations. The collection includes fine portraits and interior scenes alongside delicate watercolour landscapes. The collection of 15 paintings donated to the society by Kyllikki Kuusela, former library director in Tuusula, is also a significant collection. The society actively acquires new works and also conserves them.

Information about the works in the collection has been published on Finna, but for copyright reasons, no images of them are available.

The illustration art collection is based on a collection of approximately 1,900 original illustrations donated by Martta Wendelin to the municipality of Tuusula, including original illustrations from books, magazines and postcards. It has been supplemented later with donations and purchases. The Amer Cultural Foundation’s collection, stored in the Tuusula Museum’s art collection, contains approximately 600 original illustrations by Martta Wendelin for magazines and books published by Valistus.

The best-known illustrations in the collection are Martta Wendelin’s illustrations for children’s and young adult books, such as Anni Swan’s and Mary Marck’s young adult books and many school and storybooks, as well as Carl Larsson-inspired watercolours from 1917–1918 for Arvid Lydecken’s ‘Kultaiset päivät’ (Golden Days, 1921), and magazine covers for publications such as Kotiliesi, as well as original Christmas and summer-themed postcards. The illustrations date from 1917–1977 and were created using ink, pencil and charcoal drawings or opaque colour and watercolour techniques.

Information about the works in the collection has been published on Finna, but for copyright reasons, no images of them are available.

The Tuusula municipal art collection has been expanded through purchases and donations since the 1950s. Most of the acquisitions have been made from art exhibitions organised in the area, and commissioned works have been purchased for various municipal premises in each decade. The collection includes some glass, photographic and textile artworks, but mainly consists of paintings, sculptures and graphic art. 

The works in the collection are displayed in public spaces in the municipality as much as possible. Artists in the collection include Marika Mäkelä, Hannele Kylänpää, Anna-Maria Osipow, Paul Osipow, Outi Heiskanen, Riitta Nelimarkka, Risto Suomi, Helena Tynell, Kuutti Lavonen, Hannu Pakarinen and Pirkko Ropponen. 

In 2013, the Amer Cultural Foundation deposited a culturally and historically significant collection of illustrations in Tuusula, comprising approximately 16,000 original book and magazine illustrations by more than 80 Finnish illustrators. The illustrators in the collection include Rudolf Koivu, Martta Wendelin, Hilda Flodin, Väinö Hämäläinen, Eeli Jaatinen, Maija Karma, Onni Muusari, Alexander Paischeff, Helga Sjöstedt, Venny Soldan-Brofeldt and Vihtori Ylinen.

The collection of children’s book art originated from illustrative material commissioned by Osakeyhtiö Valistus for its publishing activities. Founded in 1901, Valistus became known as a publisher of schoolbooks and Finnish children’s and young adult books. The company continued its operations until 1979, when the majority of its shares were transferred to the Amer Group and the valuable collection of illustrations became part of the Amer Cultural Foundation.

The L-G Nordström Foundation’s collection was donated to Tuusula in 2013. Lars-Gunnar Nordström (1924–2014) was a prominent representative of Finnish non-figurative art. He is known as a pioneer of constructivist art as a painter, graphic artist and sculptor. Nordström is an award-winning artist professor and his works are included in numerous private and public collections.

The collection of over 150 works deposited in Tuusula includes sculptures, paintings and graphic art. Nordström’s works are constructed from geometric shapes that continue in systematic series. In his paintings, the colour fields are strictly defined, often combining three colours. Strict geometry also forms the basis of the sculptures’ structure. The majority of the collection consists of steel sculptures created since the 1960s. Viewers may be pleasantly surprised by the changes in focus when viewing the sculptures from different angles.