Emil Wikström and the portrait of his patron
JANUARY 2025
In the summer of 1883, the young Emil Wikström, barely in his twenties, sculpted a portrait medallion of his patron, industrialist G. A. Serlachius.
Gustaf Adolf Serlachius (1830–1901), the industrialist from Mänttä, was a lover and patron of the arts. He had the opportunity to acquaint himself with art during his numerous trips to Europe, particularly at industrial exhibitions that featured large art sections.
A fervent supporter of the Finnish nationalist movement, Serlachius noticed during his travels that there were patrons of arts within industrial circles. He took inspiration from this and sought candidates for his own patronage. His choices fell on young artists Emil Wikström (1864–1942) and Akseli Gallen-Kallela (1865–1931), who shared his patriotic, national romantic view of art.
The meeting of the young, aspiring artists and the aging industrialist was partly coincidental. In the 1870s, Axel Lindencrona worked as a clerk at the Mänttä factory before moving to Turku to become the head of the telegraph station. He was a friend of the aforementioned artists. During one of his trips to Turku, Serlachius met Lindencrona and the artists accompanying him at the Samppalinna restaurant. This marked the beginning of Serlachius’ acquaintance with Wikström, and soon after, he also met Wikström’s friend Gallen-Kallela (known as Axel Gallén until 1907).
The young artists were ideal candidates for support. Serlachius helped them financially and guided them to create Finnish art. He harshly criticised artists like Albert Edelfelt, who did not depict the inland people but rather the dilapidated houses in Porvoo, or Ville Vallgren, who had forgotten his homeland in his art. Serlachius and Gallen-Kallela corresponded about works such as the Aino painting, which is associated with the breakthrough of national romanticism. He also offered his factory workers as models for Wikström’s sculptures.
During his first trip to Mänttä, in addition to the portrait medallion of the industrialist, Emil Wikström made an ink drawing of the factory and engraved the subject “from the east side of Lake Näsijärvi” on the lid of a cigar box, depicting a train on the Vilppulankoski bridge. The latter subject immortalised an important matter for Serlachius, the route of the Ostrobothnia railway line, which he had managed to divert to the east side of Lake Näsijärvi, close to his own factories.
In the 1880s, the aging industrialist and the young artist Wikström travelled together, apparently funded by Serlachius, even as far as the Middle East. In 1889, they visited the World’s Fair in Paris and spent Christmas in Rome.
Despite his financial support, Serlachius did not require the artists to give their works in exchange for money. He only commissioned family portraits and other made-to-order artworks from them.
Helena Hänninen
Curator
