Lennart Rafael Segerstråle (17 June 1892 – 11 April 1975) was a Swedish-speaking Finnish painter and graphic artist. He was best known for his murals and

frescoes Fresco (plural ''frescos'' or ''frescoes'') is a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly laid ("wet") lime plaster. Water is used as the vehicle for the dry-powder pigment to merge with the plaster, and with the setting of the plaste ...

Biography

Lennart Rafael Segerstråle was born in

Helsinki Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the Capital city, capital, primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Finland, most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of U ...

Rural Municipality, now Vantaa, on the outskirts of Helsinki. He is the second child of Knut Albert Segerstråle, a theologian and teacher at the Borgå High School in Porvoo and Hanna Frosterus-Segerstråle,

painter Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ai ...

. His younger sister, Solveig von Schoultz (1907–1996) became known as a poet and author of news and children's books. Lennart Segerstråle first attended the Fine Arts at the

University of Helsinki The University of Helsinki ( fi, Helsingin yliopisto, sv, Helsingfors universitet, abbreviated UH) is a public research university located in Helsinki, Finland since 1829, but founded in the city of Turku (in Swedish ''Åbo'') in 1640 as the ...

, where he studied under the direction of painter and art professor

Eero Järnefelt Erik "Eero" Nikolai Järnefelt (8 November 1863 – 15 November 1937) was a Finnish painter and art professor. He is best known for his portraits and landscapes of the area around Koli National Park. He was a medal winner at the Paris ''Expositi ...

(1863–1937). From 1919 he devoted himself exclusively to art, especially painting. He began to make himself known by the quality of his images and animal motifs. In the 1920s and 1930s he became the most famous animal painter in Finland. Its aim is to represent a harmonious combination of animals, birds and landscapes. Proceeding in his artistic career Segerstråle developed an increased interests in monumental art, he also produced several stained-glass windows for churches both in Finland and Sweden. In 1929 he perfected his studies in frescoes and mosaic art at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

, under the direction of

Joakim Skovgaard Joakim Frederik Skovgaard (18 November 1856 – 9 March 1933) was a Danish painter. He is remembered above all for the frescos which decorate Viborg Cathedral. Biography Born in Copenhagen, from an early age he was trained in drawing and paintin ...

(1856–1933) one of the most influential Danish artist of his times. Segerstråle worked also with Skovgaard as his assistant in 1927 for the creation of the mosaic in the apse of the Cathedral of Lund. This new orientation of his artistic life is strongly underpinned by his Christian and humanist convictions, which lead him later to concentrate on monumental art and religious themes. Segerstråle painted several altarpieces and realized stained glass windows in the churches of Finland and Sweden. Among his most notable "secular" works it is worth to remember ''Finlandiafreskerna'', the frescoes of the headquarters of the

Bank of Finland The Bank of Finland ( fi, Suomen Pankki, sv, Finlands Bank) is the central bank of Finland. It views itself as the fourth oldest surviving central bank in the world, after Sweden's Riksbank, the Bank of England, and the Bank of France. History ...

in Helsinki, which he realized in 1943 and is considered his main masterpiece. In 1959, he created ''Vid livets källa'' (1959), a fresco in the dining room of the

Caux Palace Hotel The Caux Palace Hotel is a former palace hotel located in the village of Caux, in the city of Montreux in the Vaud canton, in Switzerland. Built on the Caux Mount by the Swiss architect Eugène Jost, it was inaugurated on 7 July 1902. The buil ...

Montreux, Switzerland Montreux (, , ; frp, Montrolx) is a Swiss municipality and town on the shoreline of Lake Geneva at the foot of the Alps. It belongs to the district of Riviera-Pays-d'Enhaut in the canton of Vaud in Switzerland, and has a population of approxima ...

, as part of his engagement with the international humanist movement ''Moral Re-Armament'' (now known as

Initiatives of Change Initiatives of Change (IofC) is a global organisation dedicated to "building trust across the world's divides" of culture, nationality, belief, and background. Initiatives of Change was known as Moral Re-Armament (MRA) from 1938 to 2001, and the ...

), a commitment to which the artist explained in a text published in 1967 ("Why Moral Re-Armament"). Segerstråle exhibited regularly in

from 1913 to 1967, as well as abroad. He was a member of the Honorary Committee of the International Cultural Center of

Royaumont Royaumont Abbey is a former Cistercian abbey, located near Asnières-sur-Oise in Val-d'Oise, approximately 30 km north of Paris, France. History It was built between 1228 and 1235 with the support of Louis IX. Several members of the French ...

, in Val-d'Oise,

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

. He died at

Kauniainen Kauniainen (; sv, Grankulla) is a small town and a municipality of inhabitants () in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area, Finland. It is surrounded and enclaved by the City of Espoo, in the Capital Region of Greater Helsinki. Kauniainen was founded ...

in suburban Helsinki, Finlnd.

Selected works

Kristuskyrkan Kristuskyrkan (Church of Christ) is a Christian Church (building), church in Helsinki, Finland, located in the central district of Etu-Töölö (Swedish: ) at the corner between Fänrik Ståls Street and Apollonkatu Street. It was built at the beg ...

(Christ Church),

. "Skapelsens lovsång" ("Praise to Creation"),

stained glass window Stained glass is coloured glass as a material or works created from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant religious buildings. Although tradition ...

on the tower bell, 1928. * Reposaari Church, fresco on the arch vault. * Art Museum Serlachius Gustaf and Gösta (Manor of Joenniemi), plafond of the library, Mänttä-Vilppula, 1935 * Finlandia, frescoes, Bank of Finland,

. 1943–1944 *

Rovaniemi Church The Rovaniemi Church ( fi, Rovaniemen kirkko) is a church located in the city center of Rovaniemi in Lapland, Finland. The 850-seat church, designed by architect Bertel Liljequist, was completed in 1950. The earlier church building, completed in ...

, ”Livets källa” altar mural, 1951 * Varkaus Church, Apse fresco, 1952–1953 * Uppståndelse (Ascension), Chapel painting, 1954, ''Själevad'' in Sverige * Paradisfåglarna (Paradise Birds), painting, 1967, Town Hall Wedding Room, ''

Lund Lund (, , ) is a city in the southern Swedish provinces of Sweden, province of Scania, across the Øresund, Öresund strait from Copenhagen. The town had 91,940 inhabitants out of a municipal total of 121,510 . It is the seat of Lund Municipali ...

'', Sweden * Det nya världshjärtat 'The New World Heart', 1973, painting in a

Dunchurch Dunchurch is a large village and civil parish on the south-western outskirts of Rugby in Warwickshire, England, approximately southwest of central Rugby. The civil parish which also includes the nearby hamlet of Toft, had a population of 4,12 ...

school in

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, and the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Avon an ...

, UK * ''Taggtråd eller försoning'' (Reconciliation), painting, 1973 at

Westminster Theatre The Westminster Theatre was a theatre in London, on Palace Street in Westminster. History The structure on the site was originally built as the Charlotte Chapel in 1766, by William Dodd with money from his wife Mary Perkins. Through Peter Ri ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, UK

Bibliography

*''Tusch: Djurbilder med text af Lennart Segerstråle'', Holger Schildts förlag, Borg, (1916) *''Vildmarkssyner'', H.Schildt, Helsinki, (1924) *''Kultur och kristendom'' (Culture and Christianity), Wahlström & Widstrand, (1943) *''Finlandiafreskernas år: Bilder av ett folk i kamp'' (Finnish Frescoes), Lindfors, Stockholm (1944)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Segerstrale, Lennart 1892 births 1975 deaths University of Helsinki alumni Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts alumni People from Uusimaa Province (Grand Duchy of Finland) Swedish-speaking Finns 19th-century Finnish painters Fresco painters Muralists Finnish male painters 19th-century Finnish male artists