Helene Schjerfbeck

In Scandinavia, Helene Schjerfbeck is praised as one of the greatest painters of the 20th century and internationally her long overdue recognition grows steadily. Barbara Beuys describes the dramatic and tumultuous life of the painter – in which more than a thousand pictures arise: self-portraits, still lives, landscapes, and portraits of modern young women above all.

With brilliant drawings, Helene Schjerfbeck draws attention to herself as a child prodigy when she is only eleven years of age. She is soon accepted to the renowned Finnish Art Society drawing school in Helsinki and provokes with empathetic historical paintings - a sensation, as this subject matter had always been a male domain. She receives generous scholarships, paints in Paris, Breton Pont-Aven and at the artists' colony of St. Ives in Cornwall. Her paintings are displayed in the Salon de Paris and at world exhibitions. When she refuses to put her painting in the service of Finnish nationalism, she becomes an outsider. It’s not until an exhibition in Helsinki in 1917 that she achieves a breakthrough in Finland, which is followed by a triumphant solo exhibition in Stockholm in 1937 that establishes Schjerfbeck’s justified reputation as a champion of modernism in Scandinavia

»Imagine the life of Frida Kahlo yoked to the eye of Edvard Munch, and you'll begin to get the measure of this oeuvre […]« Boyd Tonkin, The Independent

»well-researched, full of details and thrilling.« Julia Voss, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

»A remarkable book on a remarkable woman and artist.« Ditta Rudle, tanzschrift.at August 2016