[1] Unveiled on 10 October 1939, the bronze statue is located in the Helsinki Railway Square, in front of the Finnish National Theatre.

[citation needed] The memorial depicts a complentative (even melancholic) Kivi sitting in a chair.

On the chair are reliefs inspired by three of Kivi's works: Sydämeni laulu, Keinu and Seitsemän veljestä pakenee Impivaarasta.

The back of the chair features two stanzas from his poem, Ikävyys ("Melancholy"):[note 1] Mi ikävyys, mi hämäryys sieluni ympär kuin syksy-iltainen autiol maal?

What dreadness dear, what gloaming gloom looms round my soul like an autumn's eve in a barren land?