Helene Schjerfbeck, the unknown Finnish painter
By Emma Cormier
The first time I came across Helene Schjerfbeck was in Ateneum, the Finnish National Gallery located in Helsinki. A poster of her most famous self-portrait was for sale in the museum’s store. I couldn’t help but be captivated by the way the woman depicted was staring at me. Moreover, its soothing tone made it so that looking at it was like taking a break from the overstimulating world around me. I bought the poster and hung it above my bed for the next two years, never looking up the artist or its origin.
But a few years later, while walking in Helsinki, I walked past a gallery and had to halt. In its window was a painting that seemed familiar, at least in style. It reminded me of the portrait above my bed. So, I went home and looked up the painter that I seemed to appreciate so much. It was my delight when I discovered that these paintings were by Helene Schjerfbeck, a Finnish woman and artist who was well-respected in Finland but discarded from the art history books.
Helena Sofia (Helene) Schjerfbeck was born in 1862 in the city of Helsinki, a part of the Grand Duchy of Finland at the time, which was itself part of the Russian empire. Showing a clear artistic talent early on in her life, she was enrolled at the Finnish Art Society School of Drawing at eleven years old. After graduating, she became the pupil of Adolf von Becker who taught her French oil painting techniques. At seventeen, she won third prize at a competition organized by the Finnish Art Society, and in 1880 she received a travel grant from the Imperial Russian Senate and set off to Paris.
In France, she studied with Léon Bonnat and at the Académie Colarossi before getting a second grant and traveling further in Brittany. For the rest of her life, Helene continued to travel between Finland, Paris, and Brittany. She never stopped studying art through fellow artists or art academies. In 1889, her painting “The Convalescent”, painted in Britain, won the bronze medal at the Paris World Fair. It remains one of her most famous artworks to this day.
In the 1890s, she started teaching at the Art Society Drawing School in Finland before retiring in 1902 because she was too ill to teach. Instead, she decided to move to Hyvinkää in the South of Finland to rest and focus on her art. But she continued to exhibit nonetheless, notably in Malmö, Stockholm, St Petersburg, Copenhagen, Gothenburg, etc.
Like any other women painter of her time, Helene encountered some discrimination, especially when it came to her subject matters. At the beginning of her career, she mainly painted historical paintings such as her “Wounded Warrior in the Snow” or “At the Door of Linköping Jail in 1600”. At the time, this practice was reserved for men, so her historical works were disregarded. The works exhibited and praised were mostly her portraits; they depicted women in scenes of domesticity. Women at home, women with their children, little girls, etc. These topics were the ones believed to be suitable for women painters in the 19th century, and unfortunately, all they had access to.
However, Helene Schjerfbeck did not at all follow the social conventions of her time. For one, she never married. And worse, she traveled around Europe as she pleased, whenever she pleased, with visibly no “chaperone.” She went to school her whole life, and the lack of recognition for her historical paintings did not stop her from producing them. Her evolution in terms of artistic style is another indicator of her independent mind. Helene started with landscaping and historical paintings before moving on to realism after her stay in Paris, and finally, French Modernism at the end of her life. In the 1840s, she also painted many self-portraits, once again a discipline mainly male-dominated.
Many people, when looking at her art, would define it as “sad” or “melancholic”. But I believe that they are not “sad,” just simple. Many famous paintings are full of intricate details, vivid colors, and striking details. But Helene’s paintings are a lot more straightforward. They almost look like photographs; in many of her portraits, it seems the subjects were caught in the moment. They are not looking at the viewers, and if they are, it is with such a striking gaze that it feels as if they are standing right in front of us. From the viewer’s perspective, it is as though we are intruding on their moment or at least observing from afar. Perhaps this is a legacy of her discarded historical work; she wanted to narrate and take records of the life around her. Just as a book would tell a story, Helene’s art would show it.
Therefore, Helene Schjerfbeck was a strong and independent woman who was not afraid to practice male-dominated art forms. From Historical paintings to self-portraits to French Modernism, she had a long and complex career. Even though she was not as famous as she should have been, she was still able to exhibit during her lifetime, and her paintings now sell for millions around the world. Often, in modern times, she is compared to Edvard Munch in terms of artistic relevance and impact. But I say, she was not another Edvard Munch, she was the first Helene.
Thank you, Helene.
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