S5. Oscar Furuhjelm, 1909.

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About the poster and the artist

Oscar Furuhjelm (1880-1963) was a discreet gentleman with a youthful sense of humour. He was the cosmopolitan who raised Finnish poster art to a completely new level.

Furuhjelm was born in Warsaw, his mother’s native country, but grew up in Vaasa (Vasa). Between 1900 and 1902 he studied architecture at the Polytechnic Institute in Helsinki, but after that studied at art academies on the continent: in Copenhagen, Berlin, Munich and Paris. In Paris he took a course in commercial art.

These foreign influences made Furuhjelm a trendsetter within the burgeoning field of Finnish advertising. An endless stream of masterpieces emerged from his pen, among others, the Finland Steamship Company’s large-scale projects, as well as Christmas cards and book jackets. All of this was done with a humorous touch. He published his own comic magazine, Movitz, and also found time to contribute material to the satirical magazines Garm and Puntari. He founded Finska konstnärliga reklambyrån (The Finnish Artistic Advertising Agency) in 1910, and later became a publishing executive at the prestigious Finnish printing house of Tilgmann.

As Päivi Hovi demonstrates in her excellent book Mainoskuva Suomessa (The Advertising Image in Finland), the artist was clearly inspired in this classic and much-loved Furuhjelm poster by his stay in Munich in 1905 and the style of the satirical magazine Simplicissimus. We can almost certainly assume that Furuhjelm had studied Henri Cassier’s poster for The America Line (1900) carefully and in great detail.

So carefully, in fact, that the dog depicted in Cassier’s pier in Southampton had seemingly followed Furujelm to Helsinki...

Hungry for more?

The above text and the poster can be found in the book Come to Finland. It's a quality coffee table book filled with vintage travel posters from Finland – and many travel tales and historical anecdotes. The book is the result of a long and successful cultural history project. You can order the book here.

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