The exhibition, which is curated by Gabriel P. Weisburg, is a collaboration between Ateneum and the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. It includes works from the Musee D’Orsay, Tate Britain, the Scottish National Gallery and the Tretchikoff Gallery in Moscow.
Including works from Finnish painters Akseli Gallen-Kallela, Eero Järnefelt and Albert Edelfeldt, the exhibition aims to provide some context to the realist and naturalist movements of the nineteenth century. Conveying the Child's Coffin (1879) by Albert Edelfelt, Boy with a Crow (1884) by Akseli Gallen-Kallela, and Under the Yoke (1893) by Eero Järnefelt are already familiar to many Finns, but they may not have seen the works alongside those of their international contemporaries.
Naturalism aimed to show everyday life as it was experienced by all layers of society, from workers and farmers to the affluent middle classes. As well as paintings, photographs and early films will be shown at the Naturalist exhibition.
The exhibition was in Amsterdam for three months, and was seen there by 200,000 visitors.
