Need to Know: Helene Schjerfbeck

Helene Schjerfbeck, The Family Heirloom. Oil on canvas, 1916. Photo source: Wikipedia

You need to know Helene Schjerfbeck. A daring and emotive Finnish painter, her works should be iconic. I only just now discovered her, thanks to the Royal Academy in London, which has presented the first solo retrospective exhibition on Schjerfbeck outside the Nordic region.

“She combined intellectual meditations through subject, form and colour, as well as a taste for fashion and history.”

Highly skilled in the classical style, her works evolve as she moved between Finland, St. Ives UK, Paris, Finland again, and Sweden, during the 1880s-1940s. When she decided to separate herself from the art scene, she established her own bold style. You can see by looking at her art at that period, that she removed any expectations, and painted purely for herself.

She explored expressionism through use of colour (nuanced and bold) and form (soft while geometric), the shortness of life through still-life paintings and self-portraits, and contemporary culture through flapper-girl fashion.

I love how she combined intellectual meditations through subject, form and colour, as well as a taste for fashion and history.

Helene Schjerfbeck, Girl from Eydtkuhne II, 1927. Photo source: The Royal Academy

Helene Schjerfbeck, Circus Girl, 1916. Photo source: The Royal Academy