Opening at the Ateneum in Helsinki in spring 2006, the exhibition of which this book is the catalogue has such a varied selection of paintings from Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and Iceland that it encompasses most of the history of nineteenth-century landscape painting in northern Europe. The catalogue is especially strong in works by Finnish painters, who were spurred in the late nineteenth century to create a distinctive national art by Tsar Nicholas II¹s efforts to russify every corner of the Empire. The Icelandic painters E. Jonsson, T. B. Thorlaksson, A. Jonsson, J. Sefansson, and J. S. Kjarval show their ability to find beauty in a stark natural environment.-- Summary written by John W. Emerich, Bronze Horseman Literary Agency.