[1][2] He was the youngest of nine children born to a family of farmers, to Jaakob and Kaisa Liisa Isto,[1][3] and the only one who attended school; the nearest of which was six kilometres away.

When he turned eighteen, he went to Övertorneå, in Sweden, to work at a decorating company owned by one of his cousins.

[4][5] In 1895, he applied for and received a government grant that enabled him to travel to Berlin, where he studied at the Prussian Academy of the Arts.

[4] After a brief return to Berlin, he settled in Alatornio in 1901 where he was a guest of the local vicar and continued to paint portraits; the best-known being that of the politician and educator Mauno Rosendal.

Three years later, Isto accompanied two of the vicar's sons on a visit there and contracted typhoid fever during the journey.