Schjerfbeck’s talent was recognised when she was just 11 years old and she began attending art school. Her family could only afford to educate one of their children (her brother Magnus), but luckily her tutors believed in her potential and she was offered a full scholarship. When she was just 13, her father died from tuberculosis and her family fell further into poverty. But Schjerfbeck continued to receive funding, and by the age of 18, she was studying art in Paris on a trip paid for by the Finnish Government.
Schjerfbeck lived through some of the most seismic shifts in modern art, from Impressionism to Surrealism. But she was never one to follow the crowd and forged her own path. She drew inspiration everywhere from Old Master paintings to contemporary fashion magazines – and in the process she developed her own distinctive, expressive style. Her work defies categorisation and she is often seen as a “painter’s painter” - someone who constantly experimented with techniques, and was willing to push and take risks rather than repeat past successes.
He is little known outside her home country but Schjerfbeck’s fame may have spread further, were it not for the outbreak of war. In 1914, she was the only Finnish woman artist who took part in the prestigious Baltic Exhibition in Malmo, Sweden. The event was designed to show off the industry, art and culture of Sweden, Denmark, Germany and Russia but was interrupted when Germany and Russia entered the First World War on opposite sides of the conflict. Some 25 years later, Schjerfbeck’s work was due to be displayed in the USA for the first time, but the outbreak of the Second World War led to the exhibition being cancelled.
She lived with limited mobility after a childhood fall that broke her hip. Despite the barriers this would have posed to her, she travelled widely during her younger years, making trips to Vienna, St Petersburg, Florence, Paris and St Ives. While in England, her work was exhibited in a gallery on Piccadilly in London, close to where the Royal Academy of Arts still stands today. Schjerfbeck’s travels helped shape her unique style and she drew on everything she saw in Europe once back home in rural Finland. Although she wasn’t able to travel later in life, she never stopped painting. When she died in 1946 she had devoted more than 70 years to her art.
Schjerfbeck created self-portraits throughout her life but in her final two years, she drew and painted her own face more than 20 times, seemingly fascinated with the physical and psychological process of ageing. As she commented in a letter to a friend, “this way the model is always available, although it isn’t always pleasant to see oneself.” These later works show a move towards radically abstracted figuration that foreshadowed the portraiture of Francis Bacon, Lucian Freud and Frank Auerbach.
For earlier works see parts 1 & 2 also.
This is part 3 of a 4-part series on the works of Helene Schjerfbeck:
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| 1909 Maria oil on canvas 57 x 73 cm Ateneum, Finnish National Gallery, Helsinki |
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| 1909 My Mother oil on canvas? Private Collection |
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| 1910 On the Rocking Chair oil on canvas 63 x 59.5 cm Turku Art Museum, Aurakatu, Finland |
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| 1910-11 The Woodcutter oil on canvas 58 x 41 cm Ateneum, Finnish National Gallery, Helsinki |
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| 1910s Girl Reading oil on canvas laid on board 21 x 19.5 cm |
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| 1911 Under the Linden oil on canvas 62 x 46 cm Ateneum, Finnish National Gallery, Helsinki |
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| 1912 Girl on the Sand tempera on canvas 57 x 50 cm Ateneum, Finnish National Gallery, Helsinki |
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| 1912 Paavo watercolour and charcoal on paper 27.6 x 24.1 cm |
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| 1912 Self-Portrait oil on canvas 43.5 x 42 cm Ateneum, Finnish National Gallery, Helsinki |
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| 1913 Sisters pencil, charcoal, watercolour and oil on paper laid on card 32.4 x 43.8 cm |
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| 1913-26 Self-Portrait oil, coal and watercolour on canvas 32 x 24 cm Pori Art Museum, Finland |
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| 1914-17 The Tapestry oil on canvas (details not found) |
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| 1915 Head of a Girl charcoal 50 x 35 cm Ateneum, Finnish National Gallery, Helsinki |
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| 1915 Red Apples oil on canvas 40.5 x 40.5 cm Ateneum, Finnish National Gallery, Helsinki |
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| 1915 Self-Portrait with Silver Background watercolour, charcoal, pencil and silver on paper 47 x 37.5 cm Turku Art Museum, Aurakatu, Finland |
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| 1915 Self-Portrait, Black Background oil on canvas 45.5 x 36 cm Ateneum, Finnish National Gallery, Helsinki |
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| 1915 The Red-Haired Girl II pencil and oil on canvas 37 x 36 cm Serlachius Museum Gösta, Mänttä-Vilppula, Finland |
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| 1915-16 The Family Heirloom oil on canvas 63 x 44.5 cm Ateneum, Finnish National Gallery, Helsinki |
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| 1915-18 Einar Reuter (Study in Brown) oil on canvas 44.5 x 37 cm |
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| 1916 Circus Girl oil on canvas 43 x 36.5 cm Ateneum, Finnish National Gallery, Helsinki |
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| 1916 Girl with Blonde Hair oil on canvas 56.5 x 44.5 cm |
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| 1916-17 Singer oil on canvas 36 x 32.5 cm Ateneum, Finnish National Gallery, Helsinki |
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| 1917 Chinese Child watercolour on paper 27.5 x 30.5 cm |
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| 1917 Mother and Child oil on canvas 48.5 x 48.5 cm Ateneum, Finnish National Gallery, Helsinki |
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| 1917 Picture Book charcoal, watercolour and gouache on buff paper 26 x 38.2 cm |
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| 1917 Singer in Black oil on canvas 52.5 x 37.5 cm Ateneum, Finnish National Gallery, Helsinki |
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| 1918 Emigrant oil on canvas 70 x 53.5 cm Private Collection |
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| 1918 Slottsgränd, Tammisaari watercolour 25 x 20.5 cm Ateneum, Finnish National Gallery, Helsinki |
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| 1918 The Little Servant Ostrobothnian Museum, Vaasa, Finland |
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| 1918 The Old Brewery (Composition) oil on cardboard 51.5 x 40.6 cm Ateneum, Finnish National Gallery, Helsinki |
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| 1918 The Sailor (Einar Reuter) oil on canvas 62.5 x 70 cm Private Collection |
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| 1919 Girl from California I oil on canvas 39.5 x 38.5 cm Ateneum, Finnish National Gallery, Helsinki |
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| 1919 The Gipsy Woman oil on canvas 66 x 55.5 cm Ateneum, Finnish National Gallery, Helsinki |
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| 1920 Einar Reuter III oil on canvas 34 x 28 cm Finnish National Gallery, Helsinki |
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| c1920s The Girl from California charcoal and gouache on paper 44.5 x 35 cm |
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| 1921 Smiling Girl oil and mixed media on paper 32 x 27.5 cm |
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| 1921 Unfinished Portrait oil on canvas Riihimäki Art Museum, Finland |
Unfinished Portrait 1921
Slashed over, unfinished self-portrait dicovered on the back of "Factory Workers on the way to Work" (see below) in 2003 by paper conservator Päivi Ukkonen. Stamped with a customs mark. The main paintings was displayed for decades without anyone realising this was at the back.
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| 1921-22 Factory Workers on the Way to Work oil on canvas 44.5 x 50 cm Riihimäki Art Museum, Finland |
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| 1923 Annuli Reading oil on canvas 37 x 30.5 cm Ateneum, Finnish National Gallery, Helsinki |
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| 1924 The Fencer watercolour, gouache and charcoal on paper, laid on board 37 x 32 cm Private Collection |
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| 1924-25 Robber at the Gate of Paradise oil on canvas 83.5 x 62.5 cm Gösta Serlachius Fine Arts Foundation, Mänttä, Finland |
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| 1925 Blond Woman oil on canvas 50.5 x 3.5 cm Ateneum, Finnish National Gallery, Helsinki |
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| 1926 Matti Kiianlinna, Actor oil on canvas 64 x 51 cm Gösta Serlachius Fine Arts Foundation, Mänttä, Finland |
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| 1926 The Fortune-Teller (Woman in Yellow Dress) oil on canvas 65.5 x 51 cm Ateneum, Finnish National Gallery, Helsinki |
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| 1927 Convalescent (details not found) |
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| 1927 Rosy-Cheeked Girl oil on canvas 46.5 x 36 cm Gösta Serlachius Fine Arts Foundation, Mänttä, Finland |
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| 1927 Sjundby Manor oil on canvas 79.5 x 94 cm Ateneum, Finnish National Gallery, Helsinki |
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| 1927 The Seamstress, Half-Length Portrait (The Working Woman) oil on canvas 67 x 49.5 cm Ateneum, Finnish National Gallery, Helsinki |
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| 1928 Girl with Large Eyes (Karin) pencil and watercolour 19.5 x 20.5 cm Ateneum, Finnish National Gallery, Helsinki |
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| 1928 Head of a Girl (Vignette, Karin) charcoal 31.5 x 24.5 cm Ateneum, Finnish National Gallery, Helsinki |
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| 1928 Modern Schoolgirl oil on canvas 66.5 x 50 cm Ateneum, Finnish National Gallery, Helsinki |
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| 1928 Portrait of Jalo Sihtola pencil and gouache on cardboard 29.3 x 24.5 cm Ateneum, Finnish National Gallery, Helsinki |
