Valle Rosenberg

Valle Rosenberg was one of the pioneers of Finnish modernism. He died from tuberculosis at the early age of 28 and his oeuvre is therefore small. Furthermore, all of his work painted during his stay in Italy in 1915 and between 1917-1919 have been lost.

During his studies in Helsinki, Rosenberg was inspired by German Expressionism, especially the works of the Die Brücke group. The group had been introduced into Finland by Ragnar Ungern, one of the leading figures at the Art Association in Åbo, who had travelled widely in Germany in 1908. Rosenberg, however, did not have direct contact with their works -only with images in books. It was not until 1914 that works by the German Expressionists were shown in Helsinki. Die Blaue Reiter organized the exhibition "Erste Ausstellung der Redaktion Der Blaue Reiter", which toured several Germany cities as well as Budapest, Oslo, Helsinki, Trondheim and Gothenburg. Rosenberg had by then left Helsinki (in December 1913), on a scholarship to Paris.

The period immediately preceeding the outbreak of war in the autumn of 1914, could be considered the peak of a long but intense period of Scandinavian involvement in the artistic circles in Paris. In 1914 a number of Scandinavian artists lived and worked in Paris. In March Valle Rosenberg met the Swedish modernist painter Siri Derkert, who had just returned to Paris from a visit to Algeria. They soon fell in love with each other. It was in Paris Valle Rosenberg painted his famous portrait of Derkert (Moderna Museet, Stockholm). Following the outbreak of war, the couple, like most foreign artists left Paris and settled in Stockholm. Derkert was then pregnant with his child. In order to disguise this fact for her family, they left for Naples in 1915 where Derkert in July gave birth to a son, Carl Valdemar (Carlo), who became the legendary Swedish museum curator, art educator and one of the founders of the Modern Museum in Stockholm (†1994).

A year after the birth of Carlo, due to financial difficulties, they left Italy with the intention of staging selling exhibitions in Stockholm. Carlo was left behind with an Italian family. A Finnish citizen with a Russian passport, Rosenberg didn’t make it further than to Paris and soon returned to Italy. During the spring 1917, Siri Derkert, together with the Swedish artists Anna Petrus and Märta Kuylenstierna, set up a dance performance at Intima Teatern in Stockholm. It received positive reviews by critics, especially for its costumes, which had been designed by Derkert with the assistance of Valle Rosenberg, who had sent her sketches from Italy. Siri Derkert also produced paintings during this period which today are only known from photographs. During the summer of 1917, Siri Derkert met the Swedish illustrator Bertil Lybeck, who she had known from Paris. In 1918, she gave birth to their first child, Liv Derkert. In 1919, without a passport from the new independent nation Finland (1917), Valle Rosenberg was forced to leave Italy, leaving his son behind. On his return to Borgå in Finland, his place of birth, he contracted tuberculosis and died shortly afterwards. In 1923, eight years after his birth, Siri Derkert brought Carlo back from Italy under pretext that he was a French child that she had adopted.

Little is known about Valle Rosenberg’s life during his last years in Italy, although he continued to paint. None of his works produced during during this period are located today. It is known though that he became influenced by cubism during his second stay in Paris. Consequently Rosenbergs’s known works are confined to his brief stay in Paris in 1914 and works that he produced in Finland before his departure to Paris.

An exhibition of his work was recently held at Borgå Museum, Borgå, Finland (24 May-28 September 2019). A film about his life and work is currently under production.