At the age of eleven, Schjerfbeck begins her artistic journey at the Finnish Art Society’s drawing school. However, her ambitions to dedicate her life to art receive little financial or emotional support from her family due to her gender. Despite this, she manages to convince one of her teachers to financially back her, giving her the opportunity to attend a private academy in 1877 where she learns French oil painting techniques. Even at a young age, Schjerfbeck achieves success and recognition. A study trip to Paris allows her to discover the works of Impressionist artists such as Eduard Manet and Berthe Morisot. She also travels to Florence, St. Petersburg, Vienna, and Great Britain.
Recognition comes for the 27-year-old artist at the Exposition universelle in Paris in 1889, where she receives a bronze medal for her painting “Le Convalescent” that exudes Impressionist influences. At this point, Schjerfbeck’s own artistic identity is already evident. It is more internationally-oriented than that of fellow Finnish artist Akseli Gallen-Kallela, who focuses on portraying typical Finnish scenes. Struggling with health problems, Schjerfbeck is forced to permanently return to Finland at the age of 28, where she moves in with her mother in Hyvinkää, an isolated district. Domestic scenes with women and children reading or embroidering take center stage during this period. By eliminating more and more details from her paintings, she reaches a greater depth and approaches an abstraction that is ahead of her time. After working in relative obscurity, Schjerfbeck experiences her second breakthrough in 1917 with her first solo exhibition at the art dealer Gösta Stenman in Helsinki.
Throughout her entire career, Schjerfbeck has created self-portraits. As she ages, she becomes more isolated; the only model readily available is herself. Her later portraits reveal a confronting self-analysis. In the period 1939 – 1945, the final years of her life, she creates her most impressive series of portraits, in which she candidly captures her own physical decline. Her facial features become increasingly hollowed out until only a mere shadow of a skull remains. This uncompromising portrait series holds a particularly mesmerizing quality.
www.ftn-books.com has finally acquired the catalog which was published with the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag exhibition and it is now available.
