Berndt Godenhjelm
Self-Portrait, 1869
Born	Berndt Abraham Godenhjelm (1799-03-30)30 March 1799 Mäntyharju, Grand Duchy of Finland, Russian Empire (now Finland)[1]
Died	14 December 1881(1881-12-14) (aged 82) Helsinki, Grand Duchy of Finland, Russian Empire (now Finland)
Nationality	Finnish
Known for	Painting

Berndt Abraham Godenhjelm (March 30, 1799 - 14 December 1881) was a Finnish painter.^[1]

Personal life

Godenhjelm was born in Mäntyharju. His parents were the county surveyor Adolf Fredrik Godenhjelm and Maria Elizabeth Argillander. His wife was Alexandra Fredrika Hornborg (died 1871). Their son B. F. Godenhjelm became a teacher.^[1]

Early career

He studied landscape painting in Stockholm under Per Gustaf von Heideken [sv], and later he studied copper drawing in Saint Petersburg.^[2] He initially began his career in the courts, where he worked as an articled clerks deputy judge in 1826. However soon after he transitioned to painting, primarily producing commissioned works for churches and portraits.^[1]

Works and memberships

During his career, he painted dozens of altarpieces including ones for the Mäntyharju church, the Lovage church, the Liperi church (1842), the Jämsä church (1848), the Ikaalinen church (1874) and Finnish Lutheran Church in Sitka, Alaska founded by Uno Cygnaeus in 1840. Some of his works have been preserved at the Tampere Art Museum [fi] and the National Museum of Finland. Godenhjelm was head teacher at the Academy of Fine Arts, Helsinki drawing school from 1848 to 1869.^[3] He was an honorary member of the Artists' Association of Finland  [fi] in 1864, and a board member of the Finnish Art Society from 1852 to 1868.^[1]

Works