Yrjö Vihtori Saarinen (13 December 1899 – 9 January 1958) was a
Finnish self-taught painter. In 1955, he was awarded the
Pro Finlandia Medal
The Order of the Lion of Finland ( fi, Suomen Leijonan ritarikunta; sv, Finlands Lejons orden) is one of three official orders in Finland, along with the Order of the Cross of Liberty and the Order of the White Rose of Finland. The President ...
and granted an artists' pension by the Finnish government. The novelist
Mika Waltari, who collected Saarinen's works, also helped him financially. At times, Saarinen supported himself by painting billboards and signs.
Saarinen's work includes
figure paintings,
portraits,
landscapes and
still lifes
A still life (plural: still lifes) is a work of art depicting mostly inanimate subject matter, typically commonplace objects which are either natural (food, flowers, dead animals, plants, rocks, shells, etc.) or man-made (drinking glasses, boo ...
.
The
Hyvinkää Museum of Art in Southern Finland has a collection of about 200 paintings and 60 drawings by Yrjö Saarinen.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saarinen, Yrjo Vihtori
Finnish painters
1899 births
1958 deaths