Frans Alvar Alfred Cawén (8 June 1886,

Korpilahti Korpilahti is a former municipality of Finland. Together with Jyväskylän maalaiskunta, Korpilahti was consolidated with Jyväskylä on January 1, 2009. It is located in the former province of Western Finland and is part of the Central Finland ...

- 3 March 1935

Helsinki Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the capital, primate, and most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of Uusimaa in southern Finland, and has a population of . The city ...

) was a

Finnish Finnish may refer to: * Something or someone from, or related to Finland * Culture of Finland * Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland * Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people * Finnish cuisine See also ...

expressionist Expressionism is a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Northern Europe around the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it rad ...

painter.

Biography

Frans Alvar Alfred Cawen was born in central Finland on 8 June 1886 at

, the son of the Revd. Frans Cawen and Eleanora Cawen (née Boije af Gennas), both of whom were interested in music and art. Several well-known artists were friends of his parents. As a young man Cawen studied at the

Academy of Fine Arts (Finland) The Academy of Fine Arts ( fi, Kuvataideakatemia; sv, Bildkonstakademin) in Helsinki, Finland is part of the University of the Arts Helsinki and provides the highest university-level theoretical and practical training in the country in fine arts ...

between 1905 and 1907, and in Paris between 1908 and 1909 at the studio of Simon Cottet. He had his first exhibition in Finland in 1910, but in 1912 he returned to Paris, from where he traveled to Brittany and Spain. In late 1916 Cawen became a founder member of the November Group, which was a Finnish group of expressionists and

cubists Cubism is an early-20th-century avant-garde art movement that revolutionized European painting and sculpture, and inspired related movements in music, literature and architecture. In Cubist artwork, objects are analyzed, broken up and reassemble ...

. After the first World War he travelled in 1919 to Denmark, Italy, Spain and France; and in that year became a teacher at the Drawing School of the Finnish Art Society, where he continued to teach until 1921. Alvar Cawén - Omakuva (1923)

In 1924 he travelled again in Italy, France, Belgium and the Netherlands. In 1929 he became a member of the Fine Art Academy of Finland; and from then until 1935 he was chairman of the Artists' Association of Finland. In Finland Cawen lived near Porvoo at Ilola (his mother's childhood home). Among his works are altarpieces for churches in

Mänttä Mänttä is a former town and municipality of Finland. It was merged with the municipality of Vilppula to form Mänttä-Vilppula on 1 January 2009. The place name ''Mänttä'' comes from an old house which Tuomas Niilonpoika Mäntsä (1570–1618 ...

Kuusankoski Kuusankoski is a neighbourhood of city of Kouvola, former industrial town and municipality of Finland, located in the region of Kymenlaakso in the province of Southern Finland. The population of Kuusankoski was 20,392 (2003) and the total are ...

Lapinlahti Lapinlahti (; sv, Lapinlahti, also ) is a municipality of Finland. It is part of the Northern Savonia region, located north of the city of Kuopio. The municipality has a population of () and covers an area of of which is water. The populati ...

, and Simpele. He died at Helsinki on 3 March 1935. He is buried in the Hietaniemi Cemetery in Helsinki. He married Ragni Cawén (1891-1981), a painter, who following his death continued to paint; the

Didrichsen Art Museum Didrichsen Art Museum ( fi, Didrichsenin taidemuseo, sv, Didrichsens konstmuseum) is an art museum in Helsinki, Finland. History The art museum was founded by Marie-Louise and Gunnar Didrichsen, who asked Finnish architect Viljo Revell to build ...

owns works by both artists.Didrichsen Art Museum exhibit: The artist couple Alvar and Ragni Cawén
Finnguide, retrieved July 29, 2010.
Didrichsen Art Museum description
.

Gallery

References

1886 births 1935 deaths People from Jyväskylä People from Häme Province (Grand Duchy of Finland) Finnish Expressionist painters Burials at Hietaniemi Cemetery {{Finland-painter-stub