Rocks polished by the continental glacier
Einar Ilmoni: Island, 1910-1911, Ateneum Art Museum, Katarina and Leonard Bäcksbacka's donation collection.
Photo: Finnish National Gallery
During the ice age, the continental glacier flowed under pressure smoothing and quarrying the bedrock below it. As a result of the erosional work of the glacier, roche moutonnées were created.
Roche moutonnées resemble whales. From it becomes one of the English names for the roche moutonnées “whalebacks”.
In Einar Ilmon's painting, the glacier has flowed from left to right. The part of the rocky islet facing the glacier is gently rising and rounded. The other side of the rock, i.e. the side away from the edge of the glacier, is in turn steep and jagged.
Artist Einar Ilmoni (1880-1946) came from the Saimaa landscape. He was born in Lappeenranta in 1880 but settled in Kangasala after his graduation as a painter.
