Hjalmar Munsterhjelm


Magnus Hjalmar Munsterhjelm was a Swedish-Finnish landscape painter.

Biography

Munsterhjelm was born at Toivoniemi Manor of Tuulos, Finland. He was the son of Gustaf Riggert Munsterhjelm and his wife and Mathilda Charlotta Eleonora von Essen. His father first sent him to the Turku Maritime School. In the early 1860s, he studied art at Düsseldorf with Werner Holmberg and Oswald Achenbach and at Karlsruhe under Hans Gude.
His painted landscapes were influenced by the romanticism of the Düsseldorf school, often featuring nature as a mood rather than a realistic subject.
His landscape "October Evening in the Archipelago after First Snow, 1883" was purchased by Alexander III in 1885; the painting is now in the Ateneum in Helsinki.
Two of his works, "The Evening, in Finland" and "The Night" were displayed at the Exposition Universelle in Paris. His work "Evening of the First Spring" was on display at the Exposition Universelle in Paris as part of the Russian section.

Personal life

Munsterhjelm became a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts in 1897.
He was the father of sculptor John Munsterhjelm. Munsterhjelm died during 1905 in Helsinki.

Selected paintings

Literary sources