My family and I visited, Ainola, Jean Sibelius' home museum in Järvenpää about 70 km or 40 minutes from Lahti towards Helsinki today afternoon. The composer Jean Sibelius (1865-1957) was probably the internationally best known artist Finland has ever had. He was a classical composer and violinist representing late Romanticism. He composed
- seven symphonies
- the tonal poem Finlandia,
- the Karelia Suite,
- Valse Triste,
- the Violin Concerto,
- Kullervo (a suite of symphonic movements,
- the Lemminkäinen Suite or Four Legends from the Kalevala (the national epic)
and a large number of smaller works.
The family moved to Ainola in 1904 when the building was finished. It was designed by the architect Lars Sonck. Curiously, it had no indoor plumbing until three years after Jean Sibelius' death because he insisted that the noise caused by the water pipes would disturb his work. His widow Aino Sibelius had them installed in 1960. Their children later sold the estate and the buildings to the Finnish state. The home has been a museum since.
This is a picture of Jean Sibelius and a map of the estate.
The main building. It was built in 1904.
The main building from the garden
The front yard and main entrance
The living room
The green tiles were commonplace in Sibelius' time.
The lower painting is of Mrs. Sibelius. She had given birth to her youngest child a short time prior to modeling for the painting. Aino Sibelius had an artistic bent herself. She designed the sauna building of Ainola and built some details of it herself. But she was also the pragmatic manager of the family. Jean Sibelius was in a lot of debt and was something of a spendthrift. The couple had five children many of whom became artists of different fields themselves.
The dining room and its fireplace
This room became a library after the youngest daughter got married and moved out.
This is where Jean Sibelius used to smoke his cigars. His smoking and drinking were the likely cause of throat cancer diagnosed in 1908.
Jean Sibelius' study. He slept downstairs after he had turned 75 because he felt uncomfortable climbing the stairs.
The kitchen
This chandelier is an heirloom.
The upper two were painted by Aino Sibelius' uncle, Mikhail Konstantinovich Clodt who was a teacher at The Art Academy of St. Petersburg. Many of the works are by relatives and friends of the family and only a few were bought by them.
The garden that was an important source of food for the family and their relatives in the city of Helsinki in war time.
The sauna building designed by Aino Sibelius.
One of the entrances
The bathroom
The sauna
Its stove
That's a wringer used to dry laundry
A bathtub adjacent to the laundry room
Jean and Aino Sibelius have been buried in the yard.
Lastly, some music composed by Jean Sibelius:
This is Finlandia, a symphonic poem. It was performed for the Press Celebrations of 1899 to protest against Russian censorship. Finland had been part of the Russian Empire since 1809. In the second half of the 19th century, the Russian Empire embarked on a Russification policy that was met with resistance. Finland declared independence in December 1917 when Russia itself was under turmoil after the October revolution.
Symphony No. 3 Op. 52