Halosenniemi

Halosenniemi is the home of the painter Pekka Halonen on the shore of Lake Tuusula in Tuusula, Uusimaa, about 30 km north of Helsinki. Halonen built the log house and studio in the 1900s as part of the Golden Age artists' colony that gathered around the lake in the early 1900s, a group that also included the composer Jean Sibelius at nearby Ainola. The house is kept as a museum, and visitors see the rooms where Halonen lived and worked, with the studio, furnishings and the landscape setting that inspired many of his paintings of Finnish winter and forest scenes. The grounds slope towards the lake and include outbuildings typical of a Finnish homestead. The house is in the National Romantic tradition, with timber construction and a close relationship to the surrounding nature. A visit takes about one hour. In summer, Halosenniemi is open Tuesday-Sunday 10:00-17:00, and admission is €14, about $16 USD. Winter hours are shorter, so visitors should call +358 40 314 3466 before travelling. Summer weekday mornings are generally the quietest, while summer weekends and organised tour groups are busier. Lake Tuusula has several museums of the same period, so Halosenniemi pairs well with Ainola in Järvenpää and with a walk or cycle along the lake shore. The lake road is scenic, and the best photographs of the house are taken from the garden side with the lake behind. Public transport to the lake villages is limited, so many visitors use a car or combine a train to Järvenpää with a taxi.