Helene Schjerfbeck
Madonna, after Greco
Madonna, after Greco
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About the original:
Helene Schjerfbeck has here transcribed a detail from a larger motif by the 16th-century painter El Greco, entitled The Holy Family, painted in the years 1594–1604. On his study trips in Europe, Schjerfbeck made several copies of religious motifs painted by old masters such as El Greco, Cimabue and Fra Angelico. Not least she was captivated by El Greco's Madonna figures.
In Schjerfbeck's picture we recognize El Greco's characteristic elongated figures and their expressive expression. The clarified peace of mind that he conveys, however, seems to be less present in Schjerfbeck's version. The title, My Worldly Madonna, reminds us that her image is from our modern, secularized age.
Schjerfbeck's harsh, enigmatic shading of Maria's eyes, and the marked use of black color in the otherwise cool color scheme, create a dissonance that points towards the unredeemed and unreconciled. This touches on an important aspect of her art, touched upon in the following comment from the artist herself: "I have always longed for obscure depths of the soul, which have not yet found themselves, where everything is still unconscious - precisely in such you can make discoveries."
Text: Nina Denney Ness
From "Highlights. Art from Antiquity to 1945", The National Museum 2014, ISBN 978-82-8154-084-2
Date: 1944
Other titles: My Worldly Madonna (ENG)
Designation: Painting
Material and technique: Oil on canvas
Technique: Oil
Material: Canvas
Dimensions: 66.5 x 48.7 cm
Subject: Visual arts
Classification: 532 - Visual arts
Subject type: Portrait
Acquisition: Purchased 1956
Inventory no.: NG.M.02315
Part of exhibition: Reason and Emotions. Nordic painting and sculpture from the collections, 2009
Art audience. The National Museum in the Kunststallen, 2021
Registration level: Single object
Owner and collection: The National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design, Visual Art Collections
Photo: Høstland, Børre
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Helene Schjerfbeck
Helene Schjerfbeck was a Finnish painter who is today considered one of the Nordic countries' most prominent modern artists, despite modest success in her lifetime. She began her education as a pupil of the Finnish painter and art professor Adolf von Becker in Helsinki in the 1870s. In 1880 she received a scholarship which enabled her to continue her studies in Paris, where she was a pupil of Gustave Courbet at the Académie Colarossi.
Painters such as Léon Bonnat and Jules Bastien-Lepage also had a great influence on her during her stay in the French capital. Schjerfbeck lived the rest of his life quietly and isolated in small Finnish towns after spending time in Cornwall and Italy. She also taught for eight years in Helsinki. It was only when she was 75 years old that she finally broke through with an exhibition in Stockholm in 1937. Schjerfbeck's art is known for moving from a naturalistic expression to a somewhat quiet and distinctive form of expressionism. Her early works included youth portraits, historical and religious compositions, and French cityscapes and interiors, which were kept in a sensitive naturalistic style.
In the 1890s her art began to take on stronger symbolist features, and after 1900 she continued to develop her expression in expressive concentration and simplification of the motifs, with marked line rhythm and sparse, finely calculated color accents. The motifs are mainly standing and seated figures, study heads, flower and fruit still lifes, simple landscapes and not least a number of highly expressive self-portraits. The National Museum/National Gallery in Oslo owns a Madonna paraphrase after El Greco (1944) made by Schjerfbeck.