Helene Schjerfbeck
"Ung kvinna" (Young woman)
Signed HS. Executed in 1929. Oil on canvas 32 x 30 cm.
Provenance
Art dealer Gösta Stenman, Stockholm; Mrs. Anna Helleberg, Härnösand, Sweden; Bukowski Auktioner AB, Stockholm, Sale 458, "Internationella Vårauktionen", April 19-22, 1988, lot 470; private collection.
Literature
Hanna and Eilif Appelberg, "Helene Schjerfbeck. En biografisk konturteckning", 1949, illustrated full page, p. 179; Hanna and Eilif Appelberg, "Helene Schjerfbeck. Elämänkuvan ääriviivoja", translated by Sole Uexküll, 1949, illustrated p. 125; H. Ahtela (alias Einar Reuter), "Helene Schjerfbeck", 1953, listed in the catalogue, p. 367, no. 685; Leena Ahtola-Moorhouse (Ed.), "Helene Schjerfbeck 150 år", 2012, compare no. 551, "Porträtt av ung kvinna, ca 1930" (charcoal, pastel and gouache on paper, 27 x 20.5 cm, Didrichsen Art Museum, Helsinki), illustrated in colour p. 277.
More information
Not much is written about this painting and it has hardly ever been exhibited. Most evidence leads to the conclusion that it was acquired through art dealer Gösta Stenman at a very early stage, soon after it was painted, after which it remained in a private collection until it resurfaced in a sale at Bukowskis, Stockholm in the spring of 1988. There is, however, a full page black-and-white picture of this painting, "Ung kvinna", 1929, in the book “Helene Schjerfbeck. En biografisk konturteckning” by Hanna and Eilif Appelberg, Helsinki, 1949 (page 179). The image reappears in the Finnish translation of the book (Hanna and Eilif Appelberg, “Helene Schjerfbeck. Elämänkuvan ääriviivoja”, translated by Sole Uexküll, Helsinki 1949), but there on page 125.
There are two works on paper which have the same young lady type as a starting point. One owned by Didrichsen Art Museum, Helsinki (illustrated on page 277 [no. 551] in the Ateneum book “Helene Schjerfbeck 150 years”). The other one is reproduced as a picture in the catalogue “Helene Schjerfbeck” published by Stenmans konstsalong, Stockholm in 1958 (Pl.11 and item 51, charcoal and pencil, 1928).
The lot was painted at the time when Helene Schjerfbeck lived in Ekenäs (Tammisaari). She moved there in 1925 and around the years 1928 to 1930 she was very interested in painting elegant ladies. Many of them had features related to her young relative Dora Estlander (her cousin's daughter). Internationally renowned expert on Helene Schjerfbeck, Leena Ahtola-Moorhouse, has pointed out that the current lot, “Ung kvinna”, also probably owes a lot to the Japanese woodblock prints that Schjerfbeck was impressed by, particularly if you look at the elegant curve of the nose which has features related to the Utamaro beauties.
It seems that this particular painting suited the taste of the times and was sold quickly as it was not shown in Gösta Stenman's many gallery exhibitions in Stockholm. After having been in a private collection for many years it was sold at Bukowskis in 1988 where it was acquired by an important international collector.
We are very grateful to Leena Ahtola-Moorhouse for her assistance with the cataloguing of this picture.