This book presents works by Finnish artists from the collections of the Ateneum Art Museum, introducing Finnish art from the turn of the 20th century. Artists were either aspiring to the sophisticated or bohemian life of the French, or presenting their own people. The delicate effects of Impressionism, adopted in France, were used for depicting both the world of Kalevala as well as the Breton people and seaside, and views of Paris as well as the Finnish winter. Intimate pictures of familiar people and places unravel the Finnish mentality.