Jonas Heiska

Jonas Heiska (13 October 1873, Jyväskylän maalaiskunta – 3 March 1937, Jyväskylä) was a Finnish Impressionist painter and graphic artist.

[1] His long periods of convalescence kept him from agricultural labor and gave him time to display his artistic abilities.

While there, he also learned to play the violin and was, for a time, torn between pursuing a career in art or music.

He briefly returned to his hometown, making sketches and paintings around the family farm, but eventually settled in Jyväskylä, where he set up a studio and gave drawing lessons to the young Alvar Aalto, who was studying at Heiska's old alma mater, the Lyceum.

[1] He made an extensive series of illustrations for the classic Finnish novel Seven Brothers by Aleksis Kivi in 1930.