Joseph Alanen was a painter representing the Finnish Art Nouveau style . His paintings were mainly Kalevala- themed and represented the ancient Finnish decorative style .

Joseph Alanen was the son of a Tampere foreman. His brothers were co-operative influencer and mountain councilor Julius Alanen and county councilor Eelis Alanen. Alanen graduated in 1905 as an electrical engineer from the Tampere School of Industry. As a private student of Kaarlo Vuori, he studied drawing, painting and anatomy and continued his art studies in Stockholm.

He also studied in Berlin and Dresden from 1906-1910. His teachers there included Hans Dahl and Lovis Corinth (1858–1925). After returning to Finland, Alanen worked at the Tampere Craft Seminar on drawing and as a teacher of color theory and was also an art reviewer at Aamulehti in Tampere in 1912–1916.

Joseph Alanen died of the Spanish flu at the age of 34.