Pekka Halonen exhibition to be shown at the Petit Palais in Paris

Pekka Halonen – Un hymne à la Finlande (“A hymn to Finland”)
4 Nov 2025–22 Feb 2026
Petit Palais – Paris Museum of Fine Arts

“After the successful Edelfelt exhibition, the new director of the Petit Palais, Annick Lemoine, contacted us and suggested that we continue our good cooperation. Presenting Pekka Halonen’s work in the form of a comprehensive retrospective was her idea. It’s fantastic to have an exhibition of works by Halonen shown at one of the leading museums in Paris, with more than a million visitors a year”, says Anna-Maria von Bonsdorff, director of the Ateneum.

“The Petit Palais is delighted to continue its collaboration with the Ateneum Art Museum with this new monograph exhibition dedicated to the painter Pekka Halonen. I am sure that our public will be very curious and will come in large numbers to discover this great Finnish artist, who knew how to depict Nordic nature, and snow in particular, like no one else”, says Annick Lemoine, director of the Petit Palais.

“Pekka Halonen’s relationship with nature is likely to resonate with museum visitors outside Finland. His lifestyle as a member of the Tuusulanjärvi artists’ community and a father of a family with eight children was also exceptional. Halonen promoted a new, more spiritual way of living, creating art surrounded by his family”, adds Anna-Maria von Bonsdorff.

After studying at the drawing school of the Finnish Art Society, Pekka Halonen continued his studies in Paris from 1890 to 1893, like his fellow artists, Albert Edelfelt and Akseli Gallen-Kallela. In the winter of 1893–1894, Halonen was a student of the painter Paul Gauguin. He also worked in Italy from 1896 to 1897 and in 1904. The exhibition will position Halonen’s work within the context of international art.

Pekka Halonen was one of the first Finnish-speaking artistic talents to be launched onto the Finnish art scene from humble beginnings. Halonen did not focus solely on his artistic career, but he also cherished family and nature. From 1899 to 1902, the artist built his Gesamtkunstwerk, the Halosenniemi studio house, on the shore of Lake Tuusula. Pekka Halonen was a conservationist, which made him a radical in his time. The Halosenniemi environment was a protected area where nature was not to be disturbed.

The Paris exhibition will feature some of the artist’s best-known works, including The Kantele Player (1892), The Short-Cut (1892), Washing on the Ice (1900), and Tomatoes (1913), as well as some of his famous snowy winter landscapes. More than 100 works will be on display. In addition to works held by the Finnish National Gallery, works will be on loan from museums and private collections mainly in Finland.

The exhibition will be curated by Anna-Maria von Bonsdorff, director of the Ateneum; Annick Lemoine, director of the Petit Palais; and Anne-Charlotte Cathelineau, chief curator at the Petit Palais.

The Ateneum Art Museum is part of the Finnish National Gallery. One of its key tasks is to make works in its collections available to new audiences. Over the past decades, there has been a strong focus on cooperation with museums outside Finland, and the Ateneum’s international exhibition activities have become an increasingly visible and significant part of Finland’s cultural exports. Recent exhibitions produced by the Ateneum for European museums include those featuring works by Albert Edelfelt, Helene Schjerfbeck and Akseli Gallen-Kallela.

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