O Anjo Ferido

Simberg painted this in 1903, not long after he had come through a serious illness, a bout of meningitis, and he later said painting was what helped him recover. Two boys in dark clothes carry a wounded angel on a stretcher. Her head is bandaged, her wing looks scarred, and in one hand she holds a small bunch of snowdrops, the first flowers of the Finnish spring. What most viewers don't realise is that the setting is a real, findable place. This is Eläintarha park in Helsinki, with Töölönlahti Bay behind. In Simberg's day that park held several charity homes, and the two boys are walking their patient along the path that led toward the school for blind girls and the home for the disabled. The boy in front looks ahead. The one behind turns and stares straight out at you. Simberg refused all his life to say what any of it meant. In 2006, in a public vote run by the Ateneum, Finns chose this as their national painting.