Septem

Septem. An association of seven Finnish painters formed in 1910. The members aimed to introduce colouristic freedom, based on Impressionism and Post-Impressionism, to Finnish art. They were partly inspired by an exhibition held in Helsinki in 1904, at which works by the great Impressionists and several of the leading Neo-Impressionists were first shown in Finland, but the immediate stimulus for the formation of the group was the poor reception given to an exhibition of Finnish art in Paris in 1908; the critic of the Echo de Paris wrote that ‘The painting of the Finns is solemn and joyless, thinly composed, cold in colour'. Willy Finch and Knut Magnus Enckell (1870–1925) were the prime movers of the association; the other members were Mikko Oinonen (1883–1956), Yrjö Ollila (1887–1932), Juho Rissanen, briefly Ellen Thesleff (1869–1954), and Verner Thomé (1878–1953). They first exhibited together in 1912 and the association was active until the end of the 1920s. It offered encouragement to the younger generation of Finnish painters who later founded the November Group.