Self-portraits and silence – Helene Schjerbeck was one of the most important Finnish modernists
Girl on red Sofa, 1882 |
My mother, 1902. |
Something to be proud of: We Finns have our
art history, painters and artist especially from the Golden Age and the
beginning of the 20th century. And there is one female artist who created a
special career. I never heard anybody saying she/he wouldn’t like her.
She is Helene Schjerbeck (1862-1946). Now at
Turku Art Museum there is a very good exhibition of her art and her career that
lasted 70 years.
We can see how her style changed from realistic
and historical paintings to modernism.
She was a forerunner at the way to more defined expression . She painted
sensitive portraits from people near her and created also deeply compelling
self-portraits. In her portraits a young and strong woman changes to an old and
fragile woman.
She was very gifted and started the Drawing
school in Helsinki already at the age of eleven. She travelled to Paris to
continue her studies at the age of 18. Young Schjerbeck was interested in
history paintings.
Later one of her fortes was to paint
silence. She describes people in a state of deep concentration, for example
reading. Many of the models were her relatives.
Her art matured during the first decade of the
20th century into the style that was to remain its
distinguishing mark, a reductive idiom accompanied by intense use of colour.
The Family Heirloom, 1916. |
Convalesent, 1988. |
The
exhibition will last until 29. January 2017 at the Turku Art Museum, Finland.
Kommentit
Lähetä kommentti