Walter Runeberg

Alexander II Monument, Senate Square, Helsinki

Walter Magnus Runeberg (1838-1920) was a Finnish neo-classical sculptor.

Runeberg was born in Porvoo as the eldest son of Finnish national poet Johan Ludvig Runeberg.^[1] He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts, Helsinki and with sculptor Carl Eneas Sjöstrand.^[2] From 1858 through 1961 he studied at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen under Herman Wilhelm Bissen, acquiring a clear influence from the neoclassical style of Bissen's master Bertel Thorvaldsen.

After periods living and working in Rome and Paris,^[3] Runeberg produced many of Helsinki's best-known examples of monumental public art. The largest is the Alexander II Monument in Senate Square, a commission awarded jointly to Runeberg and sculptor Johannes Takanen, then completed by Runeberg after Takanen's death in 1885. ^[4] The pedestal features several allegorical figures. Notably, the figure representing Law is a version of the Suomi-neito, the Finnish maiden, here cloaked in bearskin.^[5]

Work

Runeberg's work includes:

• the classical frieze of Kleobis and Biton on the facade of the Old Student House, Helsinki, 1878
• statue of his father Johan Ludvig Runeberg, in the Esplanadi of Helsinki, 1885
• Per Brahe Statue, Turku, Finland, 1888
• Henrik Borgström monument, Taka-Töölö district of Helsinki, 1888
• two bronze Danaids in the Meilahti neighborhood of Helsinki, 1893
• Alexander II Monument in Senate Square, Helsinki, with fellow sculptor Johannes Takanen, 1894
• allegorical figures on the exterior of the rotunda, National Library of Finland, with fellow sculptor Karl Magnus Mellgren, 1905
• memorial bust of Julius af Lindfors, Taka-Töölö district of Helsinki, 1909

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Walter Runeberg.

References