Amelie Lundahl

Amélie Lundahl: In the woods, early 1880s
Amélie Lundahl was one of the first Finnish artists to head for Paris as a graduate student in the 1870s. After studying in Finland and in Stockholm, she then found her artistic home in France where she gained insight into the light but precise painting techniques of the French realists, dedicating herself by the end of the decade to plein air painting that was still a novelty in Finland. Writing at the same time about the challenges of painting outdoors, for example, Albert Edelfelt described the difficulty of depicting light and shadow as conditions continually changed during the day. Amélie Lundahl nevertheless largely persevered in painting outdoors in the 1880s. She spent extended periods working not only in Brittany – a region regarded by artists as the Promised Land for plein air painters – but also in her native Finland when taking a break from her travels in France. It was precisely this time, and particularly the first half of the decade, that was artistically most important and productive in her entire career.
In the woods was probably painted during one of those sojourns in Finland. The work is not dated, but may have come into being either in the summer of 1882, when the artist stayed at the family manor of her closest artist colleague Maria Wiik at Botby (Puotila) near Helsinki, or during her next visit to Finland in summer 1885. Financial pressures forced her relocation to Stockholm in the following autumn, and she continued working in Sweden for the rest of the decade. In the woods was created with a light and airy touch, with brushwork alluding to the latest impulses from France. Its approach and colours are liberated but controlled, with the dark tree trunks giving posture to the work, while the mottled colours of the lake behind the trees form a bright background to the foliage. The figure of a girl leaning against a tree and lost in thought is a recurring motif in a handful of works by Lundahl from the early to mid-1880s. She was fascinated in general with depicting young women, even later preferring to pose her models in a woodland setting.

Riitta Konttinen