Walter Runeberg

Walter Magnus Runeberg (29 December 1838 – 23 December 1920) was a Finnish neo-classical sculptor. He was the son of Finnish national epic poet Johan Ludvig Runeberg.

Biography
Runeberg was born in Porvoo as the eldest son of J. L. Runeberg and his wife, Fredrika Tengström. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts, Helsinki, and with sculptor Carl Eneas Sjöstrand. From 1858 through 1869 he studied at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen under Herman Wilhelm Bissen, acquiring a clear influence from the neoclassical style of Bissen's master Bertel Thorvaldsen. He married Lina Elfving (1841–1916) in 1867. They had six children.



After periods living and working in Rome (1862–1876) and Paris (1876–1893), Runeberg produced many of Helsinki's best-known examples of monumental public art. The largest is the Alexander II Monument in Senate Square, a commission awarded jointly to Runeberg and sculptor Johannes Takanen, then completed by Runeberg after Takanen's death in 1885. The pedestal features several allegorical figures. Notably, the figure representing Law is a version of the Suomi-neito, the Finnish maiden, here cloaked in bearskin.

Runeberg was also frequently commissioned for private assignments. These include the bust of Ellan de la Chapelle in Paris in 1880, who became the wife of artist Albert Edelfelt in 1888.

From 1893 to 1896, Runeberg worked in Copenhagen, Denmark.



He is buried in the Hietaniemi Cemetery in Helsinki.