AZUL EMERGENTE | Christa Zaat

Christa Zaat



Helene Schjerfbeck (Finnish painter) 1862 - 1946
Blå Madonna (Blue Madonna), 1943
lithograph with additions in pastel by the artist
48 x 45.5 cm. (18.9 x 17.91 in.)
private collection

Google translated lot note
Schjerfbeck (1862-1946) wanted to be a part of the international art history. She often used her own art to hold discussions with the works she admired, whether she had seen the works in reality or only through copies in art magazines or books. The universal topics as the arts were treated her very close, and the human mystery fascinated her. During her youth, she traveled extensively in Europe, but the 1900s were traveling most in the area of ​​Uusimaa in Finland, except in February 1944 when she, along with Stone's family went to Saltsjöbaden in Stockholm, where she later died.
Schjerfbeck painted Blue Madonna by El Greco in Luontola Sanatorium during the Finnish Continuation War in 1943. The year before, she had, through a copy, was inspired by Madonna's head in El Greco's Burial of Count Orgaz (1586-1588) in Santo Tome Church in Toledo. She painted two versions of the scene, one in oil and watercolor. Both versions are relatively small and they are both in important collections in Finland. The version in oil (32.5 x 26.5 cm) available in the Signe and Ane Gyllenberg Foundation collection, and the second (30.5 x 24.5 cm) are the Yrjö and Nanny Kaunisto collection of the Ateneum Art Museum.

Blue Madonna by El Greco is the largest, most central and final interpretation of the theme. It was probably during the first exhibition participated in: Stenman Konstsalongs Schjerfbeck Exhibition in Stockholm in 1944. The painting has not been part of the artist's exhibitions since then, only existed in private collections.
Schjerfbeck interest in El Greco began in the early 1900s, which we read about in the letter she sent to her artist friends and her great interest in L'Art et les Artistes publications from 1912 in which Spanish art were treated in multiple numbers. According Schjerfbeck herself she saw during her life only a true El Greco and a suspect as the interest in El Greco then came from copies and books.
From 1928 became Schjerfbeck bolder in copying El Greco's works, even though she already inspired by the Greco-Spanish master's dark drama and done their own studies in this spirit without directly copying the topic. Particularly inspired she was by Cézanne's Portrait of a Lady by El Greco. As early as January 22, 1919 she wrote to Einar Reuter: "Last night I lay and watched Greco, the Cézanne learned of Greco - and I got the urge to paint something again after such a small picture, so that v. Gogh painted after Daumier 'the drinking'. Paint-free. "
The actual d'apres El Greco -blomstringen however, came during the 1940s when Gösta Stenman, her art dealer, supplied her with impressive El Greco books in French. It was increasingly difficult for Schjerfbeck to obtain and use live models in which she painted during the war in sanatorie- and retirement home environments.

To be inspired by the black and white reproductions suited Schjerfbeck's artistic quality, they attracted no direct copying, but left enough room for artistic interpretation. She painted according to their own taste and focused on close-up - much like a film director do nowadays!
The motive for the Blue Madonna is El Greco's Burial of Count Orgaz, filled with human and heavenly beings - she is in the left corner, opposite John the Baptist. Schjerfbeck zoomed in on the part by highlighting the loving and tender figure solace in a war-torn world. Schjerfbeck colors are much brighter and lighter than El Greco, and in this Madonna is even a rare blue overall hue, which highlights the beautiful and sensitive subject. Brushstrokes are accurate and at the same time relaxed, with careful attention bright spots.
Leena Ahtola-Moorhouse
Art historian, Former Chief Curator at the Ateneum

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Helene Schjerfbeck is most widely known for her realist works and self-portraits, and less well known for her landscapes and still lifes. Throughout her long life, her work changed dramatically.

Born Helena Sofia in Helsinki, Finland to Svante Schjerfbeck and Olga Johanna (née Printz), Schjerfbeck showed talent at an early age. By the time Schjerfbeck was eleven, she was enrolled at the Finnish Art Society drawing school. Since the Schjerfbeck family was not very wealthy, Adolf von Becker, a man who saw promise in Schjerfbeck, got her into the school tuition free (Ahtola-Moorhouse). It was at the Finnish Art Society drawing school that Schjerfbeck met Helena Westermarck.

Schjerfbeck’s father died of tuberculosis on February 2, 1876. This brought even more financial problems to the Schjerfbeck house, leading Schjerfbeck’s mother to take in boarders so that they could get by. A little over a year after her father’s death, Schjerfbeck graduated from the Finnish Art Society drawing school. She continued her education, with Westermarck, at a private academy run by Adolf von Becker, which utilised the University of Helsinki drawing studio. Professor G. Asp paid for her tuition to Becker’s private academy. There, Becker himself taught her French oil painting techniques.

In 1879, at the age of 17, Schjerfbeck began to be recognized for her art. She won third prize in a competition organised by the Finnish Art Society. Her art career started to blossom when some of her work was displayed in an annual Finnish Art Society exhibition in 1880. That summer Schjerfbeck spent time at a manor owned by her aunt on her mother’s side, Selma Printz, and Selma’s husband Thomas Adlercreutz. There she spent time drawing and painting her cousins. Schjerfbeck became particularly close to her cousin Selma Adlercreutz, who was her age. She set off to Paris later that year after receiving a travel grant from the Imperial Russian Senate.
In Paris, Schjerfbeck painted with Helena Westermarck, then left to study with Léon Bonnat at Mme Trélat de Vigny’s studio. Schjerfbeck then moved in 1881 to the Académie Colarossi, where she studied once again with Westermarck. The Imperial Senate gave her another scholarship, which she used to spend a couple of months in Meudon, and then a few more months in Concarneau, Brittany. She then went back to the Académie Colarossi briefly before returning to the Adlercreutz family manor. Schjerfbeck continued to move around frequently, painting and studying with various people. Schjerfbeck made money by continuing to put her paintings in the Art Society’s exhibitions, and she also did illustrations for books. In 1884 she was back at the Académie Colarossi with Westermarck, but this time they were working there. She was given more money to travel by a man from the Finnish Art Society and in 1887 she traveled to St Ives, England. There she painted The Convalescent, which won the bronze medal at the 1889 Paris World Fair. The painting was later bought by the Finnish Art Society.

In the 1890s Schjerfbeck started teaching regularly at the Art Society drawing school. In 1901, she began to get very sick and was not able to teach; in 1902 she had to resign from her teaching position because her health did not seem to improve. Schjerfbeck moved to Hyvinkää, all while taking care of her mother who lived with her (the mother died in 1923). While living in Hyvinkää, she continued with her art and kept putting her art in exhibitions. "Schjerfbeck’s sole contact with the art world was through magazines sent by friends." (Womans’ Art Journal 14). Since she did not have art, Schjerfbeck took up hobbies like reading and embroidery.
It is during this time that Schjerbeck is considered to have become a modern painter. She produced still lifes and landscapes, as well as portraits, such as that of her mother, local school girls and women workers, and also self-portraits. Comparisons have been made with artists such as James McNeill Whistler and Edvard Munch, but as of 1905, her paintings take on a characteristic that can be attributed to her alone; she continued experimenting with various techniques, e.g., different types of underpaintings.
In 1913, Schjerfbeck was "rediscovered" by Gösta Stenman, and she was once again a success, with touring exhibitions and even a biography.

But as the years passed, Schjerfbeck started to travel less and less. Every now and then, when a family matter arose, such as a death, she would travel back to her home city of Helsinki. She did spend most of 1920 in Ekenäs, but by 1921 she was back living in Hyvinkää.
For about a year, Schjerfbeck moved to a farm in Tenala to get away from the Winter War, but went back to Ekenäs in the middle of 1940 (The Finnish National Gallery Ateneum). She then later moved into a nursing home, where she resided for less than a year before moving to the Luontola sanatorium. A couple of years later, in 1944, she moved into the Saltsjöbaden spa hotel in Sweden, where she lived until her death on January 23, 1946.