Helene Schjerfbeck (1862-1946) is almost certainly Finland’s best known female artist. Yet while Schjerfbeck is a household name in her native country, her work is still not widely known in the U.K although a solo exhibition held at the Royal Academy of Arts in 2019, gave her a major platform in the Britain.
Born and raised in Helsinki, Schjerfbeck didn’t have an easy childhood; falling down the stairs at home, she broke her hip at the age of three. The injury was not treated properly and caused her trouble throughout her life, giving her a permanent limp. As a result, Schjerfbeck could not attend ordinary school. Her father gave her drawing materials to draw and paint at home and in later life Schjerbeck remarked that when you give a child a pencil, you give her an entire world.
A gifted child artistically, Schjerfbeck won a scholarship to attend the Finnish Art Society's drawing school at the age of eleven, the school's youngest ever pupil. Schjerfbeck's love of drawing remained with her throughout her life and there were few days when she did not put pen to paper.
As a young woman, Schjerfbeck travelled extensively, spending pockets of time in London as well as visting Paris, Vienna, Florence and St.Petersburg. Her landscapes and portraits painted in the 1880s and 90s, bear the clear influences of French Impressionism. But Schjerfbeck found her own style: inspired by frescoes she saw in Florence, she developed a scrapping technique, that she continued to use throughout her life, creating the effect of a deteriorating fresco in her paintings.
In 1887, Schjerfbeck travelled to St.Ives, Cornwall and it was here that she painted one of her most well-known works, The Convalescent for which she won the bronze medal at the 1889 Paris World Fair.
Schjerfbeck travelled little after 1900. In 1902, she moved to Hyvinkää, a town 30 miles north of Helsinki to live with and care for her mother but she continued to paint actively and took part in group exhibitions both in Finland and abroad. Her painting style changed somewhat becoming more Expressionistic with a bolder more modern tone.
In 1913, Schjerfbeck met the art dealer Gösta Stenman who was to represent her for the rest of her life. Stenman purchased several works directly from Schjerfbeck and curated a solo exhibition of her work at the Ateneum Art Museum (the National Gallery of Finland) that was a great critical success.
As Schjerfbeck became increasingly established she began to win prizes from the newly independent Finnish State. This brought her financial stability and gave an increased vigour to her art. At this point, Schjerfbeck began to focus increasingly on portraiture specifically self portraiture- she portrayed herself mercilessly, observing the aging process with stark honesty and with a bold reduction of form and clarity.
In 1944, Schjerfbeck moved to the Saltsjöbaden Spa Hotel in Sweden where she continued to paint actively producing an introspective series of self portraits as well as some magnificent still lifes. She died in Saltsjöbaden in January 1946. The author of Schjerfbeck's obituary wrote in Swedish national newspaper, Svenska Dagbladet,
'It is now clear that she was not only one of the finest artists in her own country but the greatest woman painter of all time in the Nordic countries- that at least is my conviction-one of the exceedingly few Nordic artists whose works will be recognised as world art.'