Helene Schjerfbeck

Helene Schjerfbeck (1862–1946) is one of the most important Finnish artist of the first half of the twentieth century. While her painterly oeuvre attracts a great deal of attention in Scandinavia, she is largely unknown abroad. This comprehensive monograph introduces the life and work of the painter with over 80 impressive works from all of her creative phases. The publication shows how despite her physical isolation, the artist remained in touch with her contemporaries through illustrations from art and fashion magazines. Here, both the famous self-portraits and  the picture series ‘The Convalescent’, ‘The Seamstress’ and ‘The Death of Wilhelm von Schwerin’  play a crucial role, as do as numerous portraits of women and the less-well-known, extraordinary male nudes and history paintings.