Join the monthly Art History Group! 

We will review the life and works of one artist each month, and discuss the movements that they contributed to. No prior knowledge of art history or the artist of the month is necessary. This group meets in-person on the 2nd Tuesday of the month at 3 PM. 

The paintings of the Finnish realist Elin Danielson-Gambogi (1861–1919) are prime examples of what is often referred to as the Golden Age of Finnish Art. At just fifteen years of age, Danielson entered the Helsinki Finnish Art Society Drawing School, and in three years received a grant to travel to Paris where she enrolled at the Académie Colarossi. There, she studied painting with the great Gustave Courtois, and sculpture under Auguste Rodin. Highly vocal about the conditions for women artists, Danielson’s favorite subjects were often women in states of repose, casually engaged in ordinary work, which stirred controversy among academic circles of the time.

For our last meeting of the year, we will begin by reviewing Realism, its origins in the mid-19th century, and the value of this movement as it relates to the Golden Age of Finnish artists and their fight for independence. This introduction will lead us to examine one of the most underrated realist painters of the era, Elin Danielson-Gambogi.