After the Rain

Armid Sandberg was one of the first artists to donate their works to the University of Turku in 1922. He chose to donate After the Rain, a large oil painting that he had painted in Virrat where he spent his summers at his pinewood villa, built in 1903–1904 and named Pilvilinna (meaning “Castle in the Air”), which stood on a steep cliff by the gorge lake Toriseva. The work (no. 1) received moderate praise at the artist’s private exhibition at Salon Strindberg in Helsinki in spring 1921, amidst the generally severe criticism of his art. It was also prized notably higher than the other exhibited pieces (5,000 Finnish Marks). The artist thus clearly wished to donate to the University a presentable, and distinctive Finnish landscape. The green rainfall is a subtle reference to Fauvism.

Armid Sandberg (1876–1927) was born in Sippola, Kymenlaakso, and studied at the Drawing School of the Finnish Art Society in Helsinki in 1897–1903. Most of his paintings were summer landscapes. The artist held regular exhibitions in Finland but met his death by accident at the age of 51 at his villa in August 1927.

Tutta Palin 2024