Carl Wilhelms
Other names: Svensson
Born 22 October 1889
Died 16 August 1953
Active: 1907 - 1949
Country of birth: Russian Federation
Country of death: Finland
Sculptor, wood carver
Born in St Petersberg of Finnish descent. He was orphaned at an early age and changed his name from Svensson to Wilhelms by 1920. After school, he worked as a clerk but then studied at the Central School of Art and Design, Helsinki (1907-12) and Möller-Jensen's school, Copenhagen (September 1912-April 1913).
His older brother, Emil Svensson, was an architect and he worked in his brother's architectural firm. Carl Wilhelms taught woodcarving at art school in Viipuri 1915-1917 and had an art industrial shop called Gyllene Skrinet in Helsinki before 1919. The shop sold pendants, candlesticks and small decoration boxes made by himself.
Around 1920 Wilhelms turned to sculpture after a trip to Germany and Italy. He went to Paris, where he was a pupil of Antoine Bourdelle at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière for one year. In the 1920s and 1930s Wilhelms took part in many sculpture competitions in Finland and by the end of the 1940s his small-scale sculptures were also very highly regarded. Wilhelms lived in Helsinki and was married to Ela Eronen (1900-87) a leading Finnish stage actress.
This record contains information supplied by Mari Tossavainen from the National Biography of Finland http://www.kansallisbiografia.fi/kb/artikkeli/7896/ (accessed November 2011). There is also an entry for Wilhelms in the Finnish edition of Wikipedia http://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Wilhelms (accessed 28 August 2010)
Exhibitions, Meetings, Awards and other Events
Exhibited at The Royal Scottish Academy Exhibition, 1826-
1949
Exhibited at the annual exhibition 1 time: 1949 (3 works)
Citing this record
'Carl Wilhelms', Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain and Ireland 1851-1951, University of Glasgow History of Art and HATII, online database 2011 [http://sculpture.gla.ac.uk/view/person.php?id=msib1_1268120550, accessed 04 Jun 2023]
