Aaltona, Veikko (1910-1990)

Aaltona, Veikko

PAINTER (FINLAND)

BORN 1 Dec 1910, Simo - DIED 20 Apr 1990, Stockholm
BIRTH NAME Pälve, Veikko Wilhelm
GRAVE LOCATION Morcote (near Lake Lugano), Ticino: Cimitero Santa Maria del Sasso

Veikko Aaltona was the son of the painter Ernst Leonard Pälve (1888-1950, born Mahlberg). He was trained to become a teacher in Kajaani from 1927 to 1932. From 1934 to 1936 he studied at the drawing school of the Finnish Art Society and from 1936 to 1939 at the Regia Accademia di Belle Arti in Florence. In Florence he met the Polish writer Eleonora Hofstein and he married in 1939 in Poland. In the same year they had a son.

He was one of the so called Haymarket artists and he created a large amount of paintings. After the family settled in Finland he exhibited in Helsinki. He served in the war, and he was wounded in 1942. In that year he changed his surname from Pälve to Altoona. Four solo exhibitions in Finland followed until 1945. In 1946 he moved to Stockholm. He divorced Eleonora and married Countess Kjersti Gunhild Viktoria Larsson (1909-1970). They had no children. In 1949 he exhibited in Stockholm. Later he lived in Lugano.

In 1956 he received a private audience with by Pope Pius XII. His work is in the collection of the Vatican, perhaps donated by himself. His third wife was the painter Maria Teresa Penas (b.1937), who was almost thirty years his junior. During the last years of his life he called himself Prince Aaltona di Mastaguera, claiming that an adoption had taken place in Italy.

His marketing methods were questioned. He reportedly produced a long list of awards, but they were from companies that charged a fee to produce them. He also created a questionable list of private collections that were supposed to hold his paintings. Aaltona died in Stockholm in 1990 and he was buried with his second wife Kjersti in Morcote near Lugano.

Images
The grave of Veikko Aaltona at the Cimitero Santa Maria del Sasso in Morcote, Ticino. Picture by Androom (15 Feb 2019)	The grave of Veikko Aaltona at the Cimitero Santa Maria del Sasso in Morcote, Ticino. Picture by Androom (15 Feb 2019)