Emil Wikström (13 April 1864 in Turku – 26 September 1942 in Helsinki) was a Finnish sculptor. Among his best known works are the Lyhdynkantajat ("Lantern Carriers") sculptures on the front of the Helsinki Central railway station and the monuments to Elias Lönnrot and Johan Vilhelm Snellman.
Lyhdynkantajat (Finnish for "the lantern bearers") is a group of sculptures at the main entrance to the Helsinki Central Station in Helsinki, Finland. The sculptures were designed by Emil Wikström and completed in 1914. Lyhdynkantajat is part of the façade of the Art Nouveau station designed by Eliel Saarinen.
The sculptures consist of four male figures made of granite, bearing spherical lamps in their hands. The square-jawed figures have muscular chests, but the bottom parts of their bodies consist of columns decorated in a way typical to Saarinen. The men have haircuts typical of the Awakening movement. It is said that the peasant Jalmari Lehtinen, born in the late 19th century, posed as a model for the figures. Lehtinen, who had worked as a gardener in Wikström's Visavuori home studio, had served as the model for some of Wikström's earlier sculptures as well. The Visavuori art museum contains many competition sketches of the Lyhdynkantajat sculptures. The granite figures have probably been made at the Ab Granit Oy factory in Hanko, like the pedestal of the Elias Lönnrot monument. The actual sculpting was done by a sculptor named Talja and his son. The bear figures of the old Vyborg railway station in Vyborg, Russia were also made by the aforementioned men.
The Golden Age of Finnish Art coincided with the national awakening of Finland, during the era of the Grand Duchy of Finland under the Russian Empire. It is believed to span an era from the late 19th Century to the early 20th Century, approximately 1880 to 1910. The epic poetry form known as Kalevala, developed during the 19th Century, provided the artistic inspiration for numerous themes at the time, including in visual arts, literature, music and architecture; however, the "Golden Age of Finnish Art" is generally regarded as referring to the realist and romantic nationalist painters of the time. Notable figures of the time include Akseli Gallen-Kallela, Pekka Halonen, Albert Edelfelt, Jean Sibelius, Eino Leino, Helene Schjerfbeck, Emil Wikström, Eero Järnefelt and Eliel Saarinen.
Finnish art became more widely known in Europe at the Paris Exposition of 1900, where the Finnish pavilion was one of the most popular among the attendees.
Helsinki Central Station (Finnish: Helsingin päärautatieasema, Swedish: Helsingfors centralstation) (HEC) is the main station for commuter rail and long-distance trains departing from Helsinki, Finland. About 200,000 people "pass through the station" every day, half of whom are train passengers. The station serves as the terminus for all trains in the Helsinki commuter rail network, as well as for all Helsinki-bound long-distance trains in Finland. The Rautatientori (Central Railway Station) metro station is located in the same building.
The railway tracks in Helsinki were built in the 1860s. The station building, clad in granite, was designed by Eliel Saarinen and inaugurated in 1919. The building is known for its clock tower and the Lyhdynkantajat ("The Lantern Bearers") statues by Emil Wikström. Helsinki Central was chosen as one of the world's most beautiful railway stations by BBC in 2013. The Helsinki Central Station has become the symbol of the entire railway network in Finland. For example the VR Group uses the image of the station and the statues next to its main entrance in its advertising.