Rating and value of paintings by Pekka Halonen

If you own a work by artist Pekka Halonen or based on his work and would like to know its value, our state-approved experts and auctioneers will guide you.

Our specialists will carry out a free appraisal of your work, and provide you with an accurate estimate of its value on the current market.

Then, should you wish to sell your work, we will direct you to the best possible arrangement to obtain the optimum price.

Artist's rating and value

Luminist painter, Pekka Halonen quickly acquired a reputation and a place in the global art market. Today, the artist's works are highly prized, making them a sure bet in auction rooms.

The prices at which the artist's works sell range from €140 to €90,000, a considerable delta but one that speaks volumes about the value that can be attributed to the artist's works.

His oil on canvas Vinterlandskap, dating from 1903, sold for €90,000 in 2003, whereas it was estimated at €90,000-120,000.

Order of value from the most basic to the most prestigious

The artist's works and style

Pekka Halonen (1865 - 1933) was a Finnish painter associated with the national Romantic movement and Nordic landscape painting. His main medium was oil on canvas, allowing for colored glazes and material effects. He also makes watercolors and preparatory drawings in graphite or charcoal for quick studies.

He uses a variety of formats, from small intimate panels to large panoramic landscapes. In his brushwork and execution, his strokes are visible, and sometimes broad and impastoed. His technique combines descriptive realism and decorative simplification of form.

He superimposes transparent layers and works with more opaque passages to render atmospheric vibrations. He works precisely with textures such as snow, tree trunks and reflections in water. His landscapes are built with a clear, balanced structure, often horizontal.

His work highlights Finnish nature, with birch forests, lakes and snowy scenes. Importance is given to linear rhythms (trunks, branches) and colored masses. The compositions are uncluttered, sometimes monumental, where nature dominates the pictorial space.

Pekka Halonen seeks a Nordic light, clear, diffuse and sometimes cold, which highlights the whiteness of the snow. His palette is dominated by cool tones (blues, greys, greens), balanced by warmer accents (ochres and reds). His chromatic gradations are very subtle, reflecting the nuances of winter and the seasons in between.

The contrasts between light and shadow are marked, but always softened to preserve a harmonious atmosphere. His aesthetic is linked to naturalistic realism, but tinged with symbolism and a national-romantic sensibility.

His work is influenced by the Impressionists and Post-Impressionists (Seurat, Sisley, Hayet), with work on changing light and fragmented touches. The aesthetic is marked by a sense of identity, with an exaltation of Finland, its climate and its rurality.

Halonen is one of the leading painters of the Finnish national-romantic generation, alongside Akseli Gallen-Kallela. His work thus illustrates a desire to make painting a vehicle for national identity.

His technique combines naturalistic fidelity and symbolic value, making his landscapes emblematic images of Finland.

The life of Pekka Halonen  

Pekka Halonen (1865 - 1933) was born in Linnasalmi, Finland. He was the son of an artisan painter-decorator. He trained first in his father's studio, then at the Finnish Art Association's School of Drawing in Helsinki. From 1886 to 1890, he studied at the Helsinki Academy of Fine Arts, under Gunnar Berndtson.

He then obtained a scholarship and continued his training in Paris, at the Académie Julian, where his teachers included Bouguereau and Robert-Fleury. It was at this point that his work became imbued with the influence of French Impressionism.  

His early work is influenced by French academic realism, focusing on the portrait and the human figure. He encountered the ideas of National Romanticism in Finland, with an orientation towards the representation of nature and the Finnish people.

After the Académie Julian, he developed a personal style, between naturalism and symbolism. In the 1890s, he traveled to Italy and Russia, while remaining increasingly rooted in Finnish nature. He became a leading painter of winter landscapes and rural scenes.

He exhibited regularly in Finland and Europe, helping to disseminate an image of Finnish identity. His painting is perceived as a cultural and national affirmation, in a period of Russian domination.

He maintains a local base in Halosenniemi, Tuusula, a building that has now become a museum. His home-studio becomes an important artistic center, frequented by the intellectuals and artists of the Tuusula movement, notably Jean Sibelius and Eero Järnefelt.

Halonen produces his major works here, which are deeply rooted in the surrounding nature. Winter landscapes, forests, lakes and rural scenes are recurring motifs and symbols of eternal Finland.

Halonen's painting is imbued with spirituality and symbolism, and is often seen as a meditation on Nordic nature. He continued to paint until his death in 1933. Pekka Halonen remains a major figure of Finnish National Romanticism, alongside Akseli Gallen-Kallela and Eero Järnefelt.

His work contributed to the establishment of a national iconography, combining snowy landscapes, Nordic light and the dignity of the people. Today, Halosenniemi is transformed into a museum and perpetuates his memory, and is a key place in Finnish cultural history.

Market segmentation and artist's rating

Pekka Halonen's works sell for between €140 and €90,000, depending on format, medium and reputation. Several paintings of winter landscapes sold for between €25,000 and €45,000, depending on size, period and condition, and even more for exceptional canvases.

Snowy Pine-Tree (1916), for example, sold for €40,000, whereas its estimate was between €20,000 and €25,000. The most modest example is Summer Evening by the shore, sold for €8,000.

Winter landscapes, well-composed Finnish landscape scenes and large-scale works are the most sought-after segment. Next come more intimate landscapes and less monumental nature scenes.

Factors influencing value are size, state of preservation, signature and dating. Thus, works that are signed, dated and have a reliable provenance are valued. In terms of subject matter, Halonen's typical winter landscapes or scenes of Finnish nature are the most sought-after.

Works that belong to recognized collections or have been exhibited hold a higher value. Pekka Halonen is comparable to other Finnish landscape artists in terms of national Romantic style, but Gallen-Kallela can achieve often higher quotations for his main works.

He sometimes competes in the Nordic collectors' market with lesser-known artists, which can limit or moderate prices, except for so-called flagship works.

His signature

Not all of Pekka Halonen's works are signed.

Although there are variations, here's a first example of his signature:

Expertise your property

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