SCHJERFBECK HELENE. "The lace shawl", signed, oil on canvas.

Sigrid Nyberg as the model, in Tammisaari
Provenance: Gösta Stenman, Helsinki; Frithjof Tikanoja, Vaasa; Ernst Willberg,Helsinki; Karin &
Robert Jansson, Helsinki; current owner
Ahtela 1953, no 539.
Exhibitions: Den offisielle finske kunstutstilling, Kunstnernes hus, Oslo 7 – 5 january. February 1950 (142. Sangerinnen, about. 1930).
Exhibition of finnish art and art in the U.S.A and Canada: Ateneum, Helsinki; Minneapolis, Walker Art Center; Washington, Smithsonian Institution; Rochester (Minnesota), Rochester Art Center; Jacksonville, Illinois; Saginaw,
Michigan; Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston; Tennessee, Nashville,
Watkins Institute; Kentucky, Louisville, Fine Arts Gallery; New Hampshire, Fine Arts
Gallery; New York, Corning Art Institute; Kansas, Kansas City Museum.
Canada: Ottawa, National Gallery; Montreal, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts;
Toronto; Ontario, Elsie Perrin Williams Memorial Art Museum, London 1952–53
(5. the Singer 1920).

It has been difficult to place this colorful and expressive painting by Helene Schjerfbeck in the right time slot in the artist's production. Likewise, the name of the painting has varied in different sources. In exhibition data from the years 1950 and 1952, the name has consistently been the Singer (Sångerskan). In Ahtelas, i.e. Einar Reuters' first notes on the painting from the year 1956 (no. 266), it is called the Lace Shawl (Spetssjalen) and is dated to 1928-1930. In Ahtela's list of artworks from 1953 (no. 539), the painting is still called the Lace Shawl, but the years 1919-1920 are noted. In Ahtela's typewritten list of artworks from 1966, the information on the painting has remained unchanged since 1953.

Schjerfbeck painted a new version of the same motif in 1944 and its alternative name was Gypsy Girl (Zigenarflickan). Has this new version led Ahtela to change the original date to the period when Schjerfbeck painted gypsy motifs in Finland for the first time?

However, I believe that the painting most likely dates back to the artist's productive period, 1928-1930. The model was Sigrid Nyberg, a former landlady from Tammisaari, who liked crafts and music, and who had made herself a shawl, which also interested Schjerfbeck. Sigrid Nyberg was also a model for some other paintings from this period (The Dark Woman, 1929, and The Black-Haired Woman, also known as The Heart Diseased, 1930) and she was one of the few residents in Tammisaari that Schjerfbeck accepted as a friend. The color scale and the model's shameless expressiveness also refer to the 1930s, as do the nuances of the model’s clothing.

To the texture, the Lace Shawl belongs to Schjerfbeck's well-known master class, smooth scraped surfaces get energy from wide brushstrokes directly on the surface. The transparent colors contrast with dark impermeable pigment fields. In the painting Lace Shawl, movement is not created by gestures but by clothing. The most distinctive feature is the work's aura, which captures the viewer. Who else would have dared to paint a violent green color on a vertical neck to increase the tension in the painting and put the pieces together in the composition? There is nothing sweet about this painting in which the artist joins e.g. the Frenchman Georges Rouault's strong expression. Schjerfbeck, however, saw Rouault's artwork only on the pages of art magazines and books.

Leena Ahtola-Moorehouse.

Ei huomatuksia.