A Kalevala symbolist kantele and artwork from the 1940s by a young man on return from war

February 27, 2025

Professor Stig Nyström (1924–2018, Helsinki) was not only a doctor of medicine but also a visual artist. A very special kantele (SM883), a Kalevala symbolist artwork made by him was donated to the Sibelius Museum in 1993.

The kantele was completed immediately after the Continuation War in 1944–1945, when Nyström was 20 years old.

During the war, Nyström served as a conscript in the armoured forces. He drew maps and painted protective colours for military vehicles. In his spare time, he also created fine art.

The obituary in Helsingin Sanomat, written by Esa Heikkinen, John Koivukangas and Hannu Pelttari on 22 January 2019, states: “Two days before the end of the Lapland War, Nyström and his friend tried to stop a tank from driving into a German mine. The friend was mortally wounded, and as he held him in his arms, Stig later said that it was the first time he had seen a human brain – and was unable to help.” (English translation by the author.)

After the war, tired of seeing blood, Nyström studied at the Free Art School in Helsinki and the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Helsinki, graduating with a Bachelor of Philosophy in 1948. He then went to Paris to study art at the Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux-Arts.

Although Nyström continued his art studies in Paris until the early 1950s, he decided to start studying medicine in Helsinki in 1950. He became a Licentiate of Medicine in 1956 and a Doctor of Medicine in 1960, specialising in brain tumours. Nyström specialised in neurosurgery and worked as a researcher and surgeon at Harvard University from 1963 to 1965.

According to Who’s Who in Finland 1978, while at Harvard, he also held fellowships at the Massachusetts General Hospital and the Montreal Neurological Institute. He then worked as Assistant Chief Physician in Neurosurgery at HYKS (Helsinki University Central Hospital) before joining the University of Oulu as Professor of Neurosurgery from 1976 to 1989. He had also been a visiting professor at Sapporo Medical College et Hospital in 1973.

After his retirement, Nyström focused on making art again. He held about 40 art exhibitions. According to the aforementioned obituary, Nyström’s works from the Paris period were exhibited at Hagelstam in 1993 and in Caen, France, the following year. His work was also shown in several group exhibitions elsewhere in France during the 1990s. The catalogue of works in Nyström’s book Taidetta 1929-1999, published in 1999, contains about 340 works.

In 1999, Stig Nyström donated a selection of his works to the Pro Artibus Foundation, which organised a Nyström Memorial Exhibition from 11 March, 2022 to 10 April, 2022.

During his career, Nyström published several publications related to neurosurgery, and after retirement, he also published art books.

This particular kantele was donated to the Sibelius Museum at the time when Nyström was in retirement. The instrument has several structural features that suggest it was more of a symbolic instrument and work of art than a musical instrument in active use – although it is also possible that it was played. If the donor was Nyström himself, he would have kept the instrument with him for almost half a century.

The sides, the top and the tuning pegs are covered with curly birch plywood. There are some small marks of printed letters on the surface, for which I have found no explanation. The letters are mirrored, as if they had been glued to the surface from a newspaper or other printed text.

In addition to the decorative surface with a curly birch pattern, the kantele is richly decorated with references to Kalevala symbolism.

 

Five swallows are painted in gold on the wood above the tuning pegs. Six golden threads radiate from each beak, like the rays of the sun. Pääskyläinen päivälintu… [a swallow-bird, a sun-bird].

 

The wooden strip over the tuning pegs is screwed to the short side of the kantele, but can be lifted slightly from its wooden dowel on the long side of the kantele.

On the ponsi there is a bare-breasted maiden with blonde hair (apparently horsehair) in a loose curls and gold-painted arms bent forward. Around the maiden are three groups of three circles painted in gold and one larger circle.

Could this be Vellamo, the Woman of the Water, or perhaps Aino? Or is this the maiden forged from gold by the blacksmith Ilmarinen? Or Tuulikki, maid of Tapio (master of the forest), who glimmered upon the sky’s arch?

The maiden’s “hair” shows no visible signs of active playing or rubbing by a supporting hand.

Viewed from above, the ponsi consists of two parts: the slit runs diagonally and the part closer to the soundboard can be removed when changing strings. It is screwed to the short side of the kantele, like the strip over of the tuning pegs, and there appear to be two wooden dowels on the inside.

There are no wound strings. The string attachment of the thicker strings is unusual: instead of threading the string through a loop first, the loops are placed directly on the pins, resulting in string spirals around the vibrating part of the string – which is not good for the sound. The pins are arranged in two rows.

 

On the outside of the tuning peg side are five large gold-painted oak leaf ornaments. Siihen kasvoi kaunis tammi… [There a beautiful oak-tree grew].

There is a cross-shaped sound hole in the middle of the short side of the kantele, and a sound hole that resembles a human face that is singing, formed by six holes in the middle of the sound board.

 

Ruvennenko laulamahe                 Shall I start to sing
šoanenko šanelomahe                   shall I begin to recite
hyvän on toisena keralla               with a good man as a partner
kahen kašvinkumppalina?            two who grew up together?
Pankamaš käsi kätehe                  Come, let us put hand in hand
šormi šormien välihe                    and finger in finger-gap
haka toisehen hakahe.                 each grip in the other’s grip.
Šana šiulta, toini miulta               One word from you, one from me
kieli kemppi kummalta,                splendid speech from both:
šuutana šovittelemma                  we will shape our mouths
šäveltänä šeätelemmä                  we will pitch our tunes
niin kuin kahta kantelvoista        like two kanteles
veräjiä viittä kuutta                      like five or six gates
kolmie kovan ovie.                         three doors of a hut.

Sung by Miihkali Perttunen in Latvajärvi, Vuokkiniemi, Viena Karelia for A. A. Borenius in 1877.
Translated by Keith Bosley (A Trail for Singers. Finnish Folk Poetry: Epic. Edited by Matti Kuusi. Finnish Literature Society, Helsinki 1995, 20.)