Image: Rovaniemi Art Museum
Rovaniemi Art Museum is celebrating artist Einari Junttila in 2026, when 125 years will have passed since his birth, with an exhibition examining his life, artistic development and influence on younger artists.
The exhibition brings together works from different stages of Junttila’s career with works by artists in whom his artistic legacy continues. Junttila (1901–1975), from Kittilä, was a pioneer of visual art in Lapland, known particularly for depicting the region’s landscapes and nature.
He began painting in the 1910s and gained broad public attention in the 1930s. Early encouragement came from the forester, wilderness writer and artist A. E. Järvinen and the Tampere artist Gabriel Engberg, whose examples introduced Junttila to watercolour and oil painting.
After a brief period in Helsinki, Junttila returned to Kittilä, where he combined farming with painting and sometimes travelled to Rovaniemi on foot to obtain supplies. He painted thousands of works depicting the area around Kittilä, and his landscapes helped make northern light widely known.
Junttila also helped develop Lapland’s postwar art scene: he belonged to Lapin Taideseura Seitapiiri and initiated the establishment of Taiteilijaseura Staalo.
The exhibition includes artists who guided Junttila, artists he inspired and artists from his close family circle. Besides Einari Junttila, the artists represented are A. E. Järvinen, Alex Rapp, Aukusti Koivisto, Gabriel Engberg, Helena Junttila, Juhani Tuominen, Juho Mäkelä, Kalervo Palsa, Reidar Särestöniemi, Reijo Raekallio, Terttu Junttila, Timo Jokela and Vesa Junttila.
The curator is emerita professor Tuija Hautala-Hirvioja.
