Magnus Enckell
{{Short description|Finnish symbolist painter (1870–1925)}}
{{Infobox artist
| name = Magnus Enckell
| image = Magnus Enckell.jpg
| imagesize =
| caption = Enckell in 1888–1891
| birth_name = Knut Magnus Enckell
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1870|11|9|df=y}}
| birth_place = Hamina, Grand Duchy of Finland, Russian Empire (now Finland)
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1925|11|27|1870|11|9|df=y}}
| death_place = Stockholm, Sweden
| nationality = Finnish
| field = Painting
| training =
| movement = Symbolism
| works =
| patrons =
}}
Knut Magnus Enckell (9 November 1870 in Hamina – 27 November 1925 in Stockholm){{BLF|3214|Magnus Enckell}} was a Finnish symbolist painter. At first, he painted with a subdued palette, but from 1902 onwards, used increasingly bright colors. He was a leading member of the Septem group of colorist painters. In Finland, Enckell is considered to have been a very influential symbolist artist.[https://www.tampere.fi/sanoinjakuvin/rakennukset/tuomiokirkko/koristelu_enckell.html Decorated – Magnus Enckell, Cathedral, Tampere in words and in pictures, the city of Tampere.]{{Cite web |url=http://www.nikkemedia.fi/Ivailu/nettikurssit/taidehistoria1/ismit.html |title=The breakthrough in colors and in isms, Septem, the high school for adults of Vantaa. |access-date=May 15, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305044737/http://www.nikkemedia.fi/Ivailu/nettikurssit/taidehistoria1/ismit.html |archive-date=March 5, 2016 |url-status=dead }}[https://web.archive.org/web/20081104022310/http://www.fng.fi/fng/html4/fi/ateneum/guide/cont/chap7/sect1/page103.htm Magnus Enckell: The Awakening.] The Ateneum Art Museum. Archive.org.
Biography
Knut Magnus Enckell was born on 9 November 1870 in Hamina, a small town in eastern Finland, the son of Carl Enckell, a priest, and Alexandra Enckell (born Appelberg). The Enckell family originates from Germany, from where Christoffer Enckell had moved to Southwest Finland in the 17th century.{{Cite web |url=https://biografiasampo.fi/henkilo/p909 |title=Magnus Enckell |last=Tihinen |first=Juha-Heikki |date=1 November 2000 |website={{ill|BiographySampo|fi|Biografiasampo}} |language=fi |access-date=14 December 2024}} He was the youngest of six sons.{{cite book | last1=Tihinen | first1=Juha-Heikki | chapter=Enckell, Magnus (1870–1925) | chapter-url=http://www.kansallisbiografia.fi/kansallisbiografia/henkilo/3214 | title=Suomen kansallisbiografia 2 | pages=572–574 | url=http://www.kansallisbiografia.fi/ | location=Helsinki | publisher=Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura | year=2003 | isbn=951-746-443-6 | accessdate=3 August 2020 | chapter-url-access=subscription | language=Finnish | archive-date=12 May 2017 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170512135958/http://www.kansallisbiografia.fi/ | url-status=dead }} His native language was Finland’s Swedish.
In 1889, at the age of 19, he began his artistic studies in Helsinki, at the drawing school of the Finnish Art Society, but he dropped out and continued his studies privately under Gunnar Berndtson. Naturalism was the established style during his education in Helsinki 1889–1891.
In 1891, he went to Paris for the first time, where he became a student of Jules-Joseph Lefebvre and Jean-Joseph Benjamin-Constant at the Académie Julian.[http://oxfordindex.oup.com/view/10.1093/gao/9781884446054.article.T026035?rskey=u1ILEw&result=2 Grove Art Online.] There he was drawn to the Symbolist movement, and was influenced by the painter Pierre Puvis de Chavannes as well as Symbolist literature.
During a stay in Brittany he made two paintings in spare colors: Self-Portrait and Breton Woman. He was enthusiastic about the Renaissance and about the idealistic and mystical ideas of Sâr Péladan.
During his second stay in Paris in 1893, he painted The Awakening, in which he used a rigorous composition and transparent colors to suggest a spiritual atmosphere; and, through contact with the Swedish artists, Olof Sager-Nelson and Ivan Aguéli, he deepened his interest in mysticism.[http://oxfordindex.oup.com/view/10.1093/benz/9780199773787.article.B00058806?rskey=u1ILEw&result=1 Benezit Dictionary of Artists]
It is generally believed that Enckell was a homosexual, as seems indicated in some erotic portraits which were quite uninhibited for their time, but his homosexuality has never been officially proven. As Routledge's Who's Who in Gay and Lesbian History puts it, "His love affairs with men have not been denied. [...] Enckell's naked men and boys are openly erotic and sensual."[https://books.google.com/books?id=giM73n_lca4C&pg=PA148&lpg=PA148 Who's Who in Gay and Lesbian History: From Antiquity to World War II.] Ed. Robert Aldrich, Garry Wotherspoon, Routledge, 2001, p. 148.
See also: Harri Kalha. Tapaus Magnus Enckell [The Case of Magnus Enckell], p. 326. (Historiallisia tutkimuksia, No. 227.) Helsinki: Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura. 2005. In his own time, the sensuality of his paintings was explained away as something caused by his Swedish-speaking background.{{cite news | author=Mäcklin, Harri | title=Magnus Enckell | newspaper=Helsingin Sanomat | date=23 October 2020 | pages=B1–3 | language=Finnish | url=https://www.hs.fi/kulttuuri/art-2000006681403.html }}
In 1894 and 1895 Enckell traveled to Milan, Florence, Ravenna, Siena and Venice, where his inner conflicts were reflected in his art. In 1898 he taught himself fresco and tempera techniques in Florence, by studying the work of Masaccio and Fra Angelico.
The years in Italy gave his work a greater range of colors and a more optimistic foundation. In the first years of the twentieth century, under the influence of Post Impressionism, he developed a brighter, more colorful palette. An example of this is the series, The Bathers, in dark, lively colors. Together with Verner Thomé and Ellen Thesleff, Enckell founded the group Septem, in which artists who shared his beliefs came together.
1907 Enckell executed the commission for the altarpiece of Tampere Cathedral. The fresco, more than 10 meters wide and 4 meters high, shows, in subdued colors, the resurrection of people of all races. In the middle of the painting two men walk hand in hand.
From 1901 onwards Enckell spent many summers on the island of Suursaari, where he painted his "Boys on the Beach" (1910). He organised exhibitions of Finnish art in Berlin (1903) and Paris (1908), and of French and Belgian art in Helsinki (1904). He chaired the {{ill|Artists' Association of Finland|fi|Suomen Taiteilijaseura}} from 1915 to 1918, and was elected a member of the Fine Art Academy of Finland in 1922.
In 1920, Enckell bought Villa Eka in Espoo, Finland from Ellan de la Chapelle, the wife of Albert Edelfelt.{{Cite book |last=Vainio-Kurtakko |first=Maria |url=https://www.sls.fi/publications/ett-gott-parti/ |title=Ett gott parti : Scener ur Ellan de la Chapelles och Albert Edelfelts liv |publisher=Svenska litteratursällskapet i Finland |year=2022 |isbn=978-951-583-557-4 |language=sv}}
In 1925, at the age of 55, Enckell died of pneumonia in Stockholm, Sweden, where he was hosting his own exhibition.{{Cite web |url=https://www.is.fi/kotimaa/art-2000007678138.html |title=Jäikö Magnus Enckellin näyttely näkemättä? Ei huolta, hyppää mukaan opastetulle videokierrokselle Ateneumiin |last=Virolainen |first=Antti |date=12 December 2020 |website=Ilta-Sanomat |language=fi |access-date=14 December 2024}} His funeral was a national event. He was buried in his native town in Finland.[http://www.blf.fi/artikel.php?id=3214 Biografiskt lexikon för Finland.] (In Swedish.)[http://www.uppslagsverket.fi/sv/sok/view-103684-EnckellMagnus Uppsalagsverket Finland.] (In Swedish.)
Works
{{gallery
|mode=packed
|height=140
|Magnus Enckell - Boy with Skull.jpg|Boy with Skull, 1893
|Enckell, Magnus (1870-1925) - 1894 - The raising.jpg|The Awakening, 1894
|Magnus Enckell - Melancholy (1895).jpg|Melancholy, 1895
|Magnus Enckell - Fantasia.jpg|Fantasy, 1895
|Magnus Enckell - The Cult of Venus - A-2003-61 - Finnish National Gallery.jpg|The Cult of Venus, 1895
|Magnus Enckell Death's walk 1896.jpg|Death's Walk, 1896
|Magnus Enckell - Bacchant.jpg|Bacchant, 1897
|Magnus Enckell - Gethsemane - A II 796 - Finnish National Gallery.jpg|Gethsemane, 1902
|Magnus Enckell - Boys on the Beach.jpg|Boys on the Beach, 1910
|Magnus Enckell - Flowers.jpg|Flowers, 1912–1913
|Enckell, Magnus (1870-1925) - 1914 - Fauno.jpg|Awakening Faun, 1914
|Magnus Enckell - Pietà - A II 1088 - Finnish National Gallery.jpg|Pietà, 1916
|Magnus Enckell - Self-Portrait (1918).jpg|Self-Portrait, 1918
|Magnus Enckell - Young Nude Male.jpg|Young Nude Male, 1920s – the white cloth possibly painted on later{{cite news |last1=Rossi |first1=Venla |title=Maalattiinko alapään peittävä harso Alastomaan nuoreen mieheen jälkikäteen? Taidekoti Kirpilä aloittaa viikonloppuna queer-kierrokset |url=https://www.hs.fi/nyt/art-2000005092293.html |accessdate=3 August 2020 |work=Helsingin Sanomat |date=17 February 2017}}
}}
See also
References
{{Reflist}}
Sources
- S. Koja, ed. Nordic Dawn Modernism's Awakening in Finland 1890–1920 [exhibition catalogue] (2005)
- Magnus Enckell 1870–1925 [exhibition catalogue, Helsinki City Art Museum] (2000)
- Magnus Enckell 1870–1925 [exhibition catalogue, Tampere Art Museum] (1988)
External links
- {{Commons category-inline}}
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20141204193625/http://www.tampere.fi/tampereinfo/sanoinjakuvin/rakennukset/tuomiokirkko/koristelu_enckell.html Magnus Enckell] {{in lang|fi}}
- [https://www.kansallisgalleria.fi/fi/search?authors%5B%5D=Magnus%20Enckell Enckell, Magnus] at the National Gallery of Finland.
:* {{BLF|3214|Magnus Enckell}}
{{Authority control (arts)}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Enckell, Magnus}}
Category:People from Viipuri Province (Grand Duchy of Finland)
Category:Swedish-speaking Finns
Category:Finnish people of German descent
Category:Finnish LGBTQ painters
Category:Académie Julian alumni
Category:20th-century Finnish painters
Category:Finnish male painters
Category:20th-century Finnish male artists
Category:Deaths from pneumonia in Sweden