Victor Axel Westerholm was a visual artist born in 1860 in the town of Turku. He was the son of Viktor Westerholm, a ship's master, and Maria Westerholm (née Andersson) who moved to Turku from Nauvo, a rustic parrish in the archipelago. At the age of nine he received lessons from the royal court painter R.W. Ekman at the Turku Drawing school. He continued to study at the school from 1869−1878. This would begin a lifelong link between Westerholm and the city of Turku.

     In 1878 the Turku Skating Club held a masked ball and the proceeds went toward financing Westerholm's studies in Düsseldorf. He studied under Eugen Dücker in Düsseldorf from 1878−1880. In 1880 he also spent the summer on the island of Åland which would later be the inspiration for some of his large, monumental landscape paintings. In 1882 the artist spent a week in Paris, a precursor to a return in 1888 to study at Académie Julian for two years.

     In the mid-1880s Westerholm began painting the large, expansive landscape paintings for which he would later be known. His greatest success with these was at the Finnish Art Exposition of 1885 where he was awarded the gold medal for the painting, "An October Day in Åland."

     In 1886, he invited several artists to Tomtebo thus beginning the Önningeby Artists' Colony (Önningebykolonin) on the island of Åland. Members of the group include artists J.A.G. Acke, Hanna Rönnberg, Elin Danielson-Gambogi, Edvard Westman, Ellen Favorin, Amélie Lundahl and Elias Muukka. Since 1992 the Önningeby Museum has exhibited a permanent collection of works by the Önningeby Artists’ Colony.

     In 1888 he studied at Académie Julian and the same year became a teacher at the school of the Society of Art in Turku. Westerholm was an instructor at Turku drawing school until 1898 and again from 1904–1917.

     In what may have been the artist's greatest contribution, in 1891 he was elected as the curator of the newly formed Art Association in Turku, a position he held for 28 years. From there he curated art exhibitions in Turku and the purchase of hundreds of important works of art that would eventually make up the foundation of the Turku Art Museum collection. During that time important works by Pekka Halonen, Albert Edelfelt, Akseli Gallen-Kallela and Helene Schjerfbeck were acquired.

     In 2010 the Åland Islands issued stamps with works by Victor Westerholm to commemerate his 150th Birth Anniversary.

     The artist is represented in these public institutions:

• National Gallery of Finland

• National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design in Oslo

• Önningeby Museum

• The City of Pori Art Collection

• Turku Art Museum

• Lappeenranta Art Museum

• Helsinki Art Museum

• Lönnström Art Museum

• Hameenlinna Art Museum

• Kuopio Art Museum

• Rauma Art Museum

• Ålands Art Museum

• Casa Haartman Museum