Hjalmar Munsterhjelm

Munsterhjelm was born at Toivoniemi Manor of Tuulos, Finland. He was the son of Gustaf Riggert Munsterhjelm (1806-1872) and his wife and Mathilda Charlotta Eleonora von Essen (1818-1895). His father first sent him to the Turku Maritime School. In the early 1860s, he studied art at Düsseldorf with Werner Holmberg (1830-1860) and Oswald Achenbach (1827-1905) and at Karlsruhe under Hans Gude.^[3][4]

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 After the First Snowfall" (1883) was purchased by Alexander III in 1885; the painting is now in the Ateneum in Helsinki.^[5][2] Two of his works, "The Evening, in Finland" and "The Night" were displayed at the 1878 Paris Exposition.^[6] His work "Evening of the First Spring" was also on display at the 1900 Paris Exposition.^[7][2]

He married Olga Mathilda Tanninen (1856–1929) in 1875. They had four children, one of whom was the sculptor John Munsterhjelm (1879–1925). Munsterhjelm became a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts in 1897.^[8]

He kept being highly productive all the way until his death in 1905 in Helsinki.^[9][2]

In current times his moonlight paintings are some his most famous and popular.^[10][11]

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  Shepherd in the Alps, 1860
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  Road in Finland, 1865
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  Peasant Woman from Bayern, 1860s
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  Birches in Summer, 1869
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  Village Street in Schwartzwald, 1870
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  Landscape from Hohenaschau, 1871
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  Häme Castle, 1872
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  Winter Landscape from Tuulos, 1874
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  Woodland in Hauho, Häme
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  Olavinlinna (Winter), 1870s
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  Moonlight in Barösund, late 1870s
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  Moonlit Night, 1883
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  October Evening After the First Snowfall, 1883
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  Morning Atmosphere (Island View), 1884
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  Moonlight, 1885
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  Crack Willows, 1897