Eric O.W. Ehrström (1881-1934)
metal and ornamental artist
Eric Otto Woldemar Ehrström was born in Helsinki on 5 February 1881. He left high school at the age of 17 without finishing his course and went on to study at the School of Drawing of the Arts Association of Finland in 1899. He became interested in the design of applied art objects through his relative, the painter Akseli Gallen-Kallela. Ehrström was Gallen-Kallela’s pupil at Kalela, the latter’s studio and residence at Ruovesi in 1899-1900, when Gallen-Kallela was designing, among other works, the Iris Room of the Finland Pavilion of the Paris World’s Fair. Gallen-Kallela had an obvious influence on Ehrström’s choice of career.
Ehrström studied metalwork and embossing in Paris in 1901, and after his stay in Europe he began to make fine-metal works. He became a metal craftsman and ornamental artist, and Finland’s first actual designer in the field of applied art. Before him, this work had been carried out by painters and architects. Not only a designer of objects, Ehrström also made them from start to finish. He experimented with new materials and developed, among other innovations, techniques of metal chasing. His works in metal (including door handles and bracket lamps) were on show for the first time at the Finnish Artists’ Exhibition of 1900 and the 1901 Lottery Prize Exhibition of the Finnish Society of Crafts and Design.
In 1903, Hvitträsk at Kirkkonummi west of Helsinki was built as the joint studio and residence of the architects Herman Gesellius, Armas Lindgren and Eliel Saarinen. Ehrström and his wife Olga (Olli) Gummerus-Ehrström lived in an auxiliary building at the Hvitträsk complex from 1906 to 1912. His works at Hvitträsk include at least the spark guard of the fireplace in the large main room, the clock face of the grandfather clock in the main room and the decorative shutters of the tiled stoves in the various rooms. Ehrström also made chased metal works for other projects of the Gesellius-Lindgren-Saarinen office, such as Hvittorp at Kirkkonummi and Suur-Merijoki Manor on the Karelian Isthmus. Other monumental chased metal works for public buildings included, for example, the bronze doors of the Helsinki branch office of the Nordiska Aktiebank bank (1904), the copper doors of the National Museum of Finland (1909), the doors of the Suomi Insurance Company offices (1910), and the copper doors of the Kaleva Insurance Company building (1913).
In his art chasing oeuvre, Ehrström specialized specifically in the design and handcrafting of small metal objects. These included boxes of various kinds with lids, ashtrays, cigarette cases, containers, bowls, vases and trays. The pieces were always designed as part of contemporary interiors, and the larger works belonged to permanent interior designs. The materials were copper, brass, bronze or pewter. Ehrström developed new techniques of treating surfaces and decoration. The motifs were in many cases taken from Finnish nature: flora, fauna and the underwater world.
In the early decades of the 20th century, Ehrström also designed jewellery. Beginning in 1905, pieces of jewellery designed and made by him were included among the annual lottery prizes of the Finnish Society of Crafts and Design. They consisted initially of clasps, brooches, hair ornaments, hat pins and necklaces. New items of the 1910s were bracelets, earrings and rings, among others. The late 1910s were the peak period of Ehrström’s jewellery design. The most impressive pieces were decorated with pearls and precious stones. He adopted ivory as a new material in the 1930s. Alongside jewellery, Ehrström also designed silver objects, such as a set of communion articles of Tampere Cathedral in 1906, and the silver communion articles of Kallio Church in Helsinki in 1919. It was not until the 1980s that the crown of the intended King of Finland, designed by Ehrström in 1918, was finally made.
The Taito metal art firm was established in 1919, with Ehrström as one of its partners and head of its applied art department. The other partners in the venture were the sculptor Emil Wikström, the industrialist Gösta Serlachius and the metal craftsman and designer Paavo Tynell. Not much information survives about Ehrström’s own works for the company, but he presumably designed light fittings and bracket lamps. The Taito company later became known as the manufacturer of lamps and light fittings designed by Paavo Tynell, and specifically as his firm.
Eric Ehrström was a well-known gourmet, who collected cookbooks. He also designed dinner services, winning a design contest held by the Arabia factory in Helsinki in 1912. Known as Model XI, this dinner service was in production from 1915 to 1925. It was included in the main prize of the 1913 lottery of the Finnish Society of Crafts and Design. The theme of the prize was a set dinner table and alongside the dinner service, the items included silver cutlery, a fruit bowl and wineglasses designed by Ehrström. In the 1910s, Ehrström began to design glass objects, and in late 1925 he became the first artistic director of the Karhula glassworks.
Commercial and graphic art were also part of Ehrström’s versatile oeuvre. The Finnish Red Cross issued its first postage stamp on 15 May 1922, with a coat of arms motif designed by Ehrström. He also designed and made a large number of scrolls and statements of congratulation, often painted on parchment. Ehrström’s illustrations included initial letters, heading illustrations and closing vignettes for the art magazine Ateneum around the turn of the century. Here, too, plant motifs of the Art Nouveau, or Jugendstil, period were typical features. The artist often found the themes for his woodblock prints from the grounds of Hvitträsk, and the influence of so-called Japanism is evident in his works of the period.
Ehrström taught embossing and chasing at the Central School of Arts and Crafts on two occasions, in 1904-1905 and from 1912 until 1919. In 1924 he published a book entitled Konsthantverk (Applied Art). Although intended as a textbook for schools of crafts, it interested the field as a whole. The book presents various crafts skills, with metalwork, which was personally closest to Ehrström, discussed in greatest detail.
This versatile artist and designer also worked in the field of heraldry, and was a member of the official state seal and flag committees. As the artist of the former, he designed, among other works, the seal of the President of Finland and the seals of many government departments. Ehrström also designed the coats of arms of the cities of Pori and Vaasa and the Province of Petsamo.
During his last years, Eric Ehrström participated in a few major national projects. The main building of the Finnish-language University of Turku was completed in 1922, with Ehrström participating in the project together with the architect Armas Lindgren. Lindgren was responsible for the furniture of the rector’s office, among other items, while Ehrström designed a rya rug and wrought-iron lamps for the office. In 1925, Ehrström prepared the stained-glass paintings of the main staircase of the National Museum of Finland. The new reception rooms of Kymi Ltd. were completed in 1933, containing the frescoes and stained-glass paintings of the lobby, perhaps the most important works of Ehrström’s career. The themes of the frescoes along the upper parts of the walls were the events of the Finnish Civil War of 1918.
Auli Suortti-Vuorio
Bibiliography:
Articles in Eric O.W. Ehrström 1881-1934. Kustannus W. Hagelstam. Helsinki 1998:
- Amberg, Anna-Liisa, Käsityön mestari ja taideteollisuusmies / Hantverksmästaren och konstindustrimannen / A master craftsman and a leading figure in the applied arts
- Inkamaija Iitiä, Taidegrafiikasta ja kuvituksista / Eric O.W. Ehrströms konstgrafik och illustrationer / Graphic art and illustrations by Eric O.W. Ehrström
- Hyrsky, Tuomas, Eric O.W. Ehrström ja heraldiikka / Eric O.W. Ehrström och heraldiken / Eric O.W. Ehrström and heraldry
Kruskopf, Erik, Suomen taideteollisuus. Suomalaisen muotoilun vaiheita. Porvoo 1989.
Tirranen, Hertta, Olga ja Eric O.W. Ehrström. In: Suomen taiteilijoita Juho Rissasesta Jussi Mäntyseen. Porvoo 1950.
Annual reports, lottery prize lists and collection of photographs of the Finnish Society of Crafts and Design. Archives of the Finnish Society of Crafts and Design, University of Art and Design Helsinki.
Photos:
Portrait a painting by Akseli Gallen-Kallela, 1906
Silver objects
Jewellery and other silver objects by Ehrström at the lottery prize exhibition of the Finnish Society of Crafts and Design, 1914. Photo: University of Art and Design Helsinki, archives
The bronze doors of the Pohjoismainen osakepankki bank, 1904
Tableware set
Tableware set, lottery prize of the Society of Crafts and Design, 1913. Cutlery, fruit bowl, china and wine glasses designed by Ehrström. Photo by Eric Sundström, from the book Eric O.W. Ehrström 1881-1934
The crown of the King of Finland
When Finland got independent in 1917, the first form of constitution was a kingdom. Ehrström designed the King's crown in 1918. Finland became, however, a republic. The crown was not made until in the 1980s, by Teuvo Ypyä after the designs of Ehrström. Photo Kemin jalokivigalleria, from the book Eric
