Axel Hertzberg

Axel Hertzberg was a 19th-century Finnish painter who spent his days inside the dusty halls of the Ateneum, copying Titian for practice. He’d stand for hours in front of one painting, squinting at the way light caught the gold embroidery on a nobleman’s sleeve. The copy he made of Titian’s “Portrait of Alfonso d’Avalos with a Page” still hangs in the Ateneum today, a quiet next-door neighbor to the original. If you spot it, check the frame—Hertzberg left his own brushstrokes just visible under the gilt.