About the Artist
Eero Järnefelt
Born: Viipuri (now Vyborg, Russia), 8 November 1863
Died: Helsinki, 15 November 1937
Nationality: Finnish
Swidden Farming
Eero Järnefelt, 1892.
Collection
Finnish National Gallery, Helsinki
Trivia
Swidden Farming was purchased by the Finnish Art Association in 1893, the same year Järnefelt exhibited it there.
Documentation
Bengt von Bonsdorff notes:
“[T]he years 1892-93 were tough famine years in Finnish agriculture and sympathy for the poor was widespread. Against that background and the fact that the artist belonged to an aristocratic and affluent social class, [scholars] have also speculated about the influence of a bad conscience on [Järnefelt’s] choice of subject.”
Bengt von Bonsdorff, “Sved” in 1880-tal i nordisk måleri (Stockholm: Nationalmuseum, 1985), 132.