Ilmari Aalto was a Finnish painter born in 1891 in the town of Kuopio. Aalto studied at the Central School of Art and Design 1907−1908 and the Finnish Art Society drawing school in 1908−1911. He was friends with the expressionist Tyko Sallinen and became a member, along with Sallinen, of the November Group − one of the first great modernist group in Finland. He painted corrugated structural still-lifes, and landscapes and portraits.
    Most of Aalto's landscape paintings are the views of Töölöstä. A wave of landscape paintings were created by the artist for the Restaurant Eliel on the Helsinki railway station. The rear wall landscape design for the station was designed by artists Eero Järnefelt, A.W. Finch, along with Ilmari Aalto. The artist painted the highest and most prominent portion of the mural simply because the other two artists hadn't the courage to climb that high.
    Expressionism made way to cubism in 1914. Aalto was one of the first Finnish artsts to paint in the cubist style.  He was part of the first cubists and expressionists exhibition seen in Finland in 1914. Aalto was also influenced by the German Expressionists in Der Blaur Reiter.
    In 1920, after a Paris trip, Aalto began to use more colors and strong brush strokes instead of the earlier off-palette. While visiting Paris again in 1928, he adopted a more realistic expression, with clear contours and unmixed colors. Aalto died of liver cancer at the age of 43.
     The artist is represented in these public institutions:

• The Finnish National Gallery

• Espoo Museum of Modern Art

• The Didrichsen Art Museum

• Lappeenranta Art Museum

• Orimattila Art Museum

• The Hiekka Art Museum