Study Gallery 08: Screen 11

PAINTING LIFE

Helene Schjerfbeck developed her own unique imagery out in the Finnish countryside. With a keen psychological eye, she portrayed the women around her. Later in life, she painted powerful self-portraits, documenting her own process of aging. How would you paint your life?

Helene Schjerfbeck painted many portraits of women of various ages. Often, she would start with a live model, and then finished the work from memory. In the Finnish town of Hyvinkää, where she moved in the early 1900s, Schjerfbeck would paint the inhabitants at their daily chores.

Schjerfbeck had her major breakthrough when she was 75, with a big exhibition in Stockholm. Following the advice of the Swedish-speaking Finnish art dealer Gösta Stenman, Schjerfbeck moved to Sweden and spent her last years at the Grand Hotel in Saltsjöbaden. During this period, she painted more than twenty self-portraits, studying herself as she aged, and exploring both colour and representation. Look at her eyes and posture, how intensely she is scrutinising herself.

Schjerfbeck was passionate about the techniques of the old masters, including frescos (painting on wet lime plaster). She applied her paints in many layers. She then wiped the paint with a rag, removing the excess and rubbing the remaining pigments into the canvas, to achieve a simple and expressive style that is classical yet modern and radical.

Her frequent travels early in life took Schjerfbeck to Paris, among other places. Throughout her time in Finland, she kept in touch with the international art scene by subscribing to art journals. She also visited Helsinki occasionally to go to exhibitions of contemporary art at the Ateneum.