Helene Schjerfbeck

My Work Bench, study, 1926
Oil on canvas 35 x 30.5 cm
Signed HS in the lower right corner
Ahtela 1953, no. 612; Ateneum 2012, no. 478.
Provenance: kept in a private family collection throughout

Exhibited: Helene Schjerfbeck 150 years, Finnish National Gallery 1 June – 14 October 2012, no. 478

Helene Schjerfbeck moved to Ekenäs on the south coast of Finland with her servant in July 1925, leasing a house adjacent to what would later become the main road through the town at Perspektivet 2 (now Raseborgsvägen 2). There were four apartments in the large white-painted house, and Schjerfbeck occupied one with three rooms and a kitchen at the end of the building next to the gate. Two other residential buildings overlooked the yard, which also included a shed and outside toilet. From the windows on the street side Schjerfbeck could see a service station and bus parking.
Preferring not to paint this view from the windows of her studio, Schjerfbeck instead found the inspiration for several sketches and paintings in the slightly overgrown garden, with its bench and trees, and the stone walls of a neighbouring building. She described the way that this view transported her imagination in a letter to her friend Einar Reuter written in October 1925: “Fruktträden, halvnakna, och små stenbyggnader bakom är fullkomligt ett franskt landskap,....” (“Almost barren fruit trees standing against a background of small stone buildings evoke a perfect French landscape.”) She may also have been thinking at this point of the radical work Shadow on the Wall that she originally painted during her youth in Brittany and then reinterpreted in the years that followed. This also gave pride of place to a rustic bench.

The small, newly painted My Work Bench from 1926 is almost an abstract expression of the view onto the yard in Ekenäs. Schjerfbeck described her experiences of the yard in a letter to her friend and fellow artist Marie Wiik written in May 1926: “Jag kan komma ut på gården här, det är allt vad jag kan, men det är ljuvliga aftnar under gamla brutna fruktträd, och jag tycker jag hör från stranden vågskvalp, den är långt borta. Jag planterar små grästorvor framför bänken där människor stå och trampa obarmhärtigt när jag "drar publik", det är det enda goda jag gör. - ...,ty nu skall jag försöka landskap bara det kommer riktig löv på träden.” (“I can step out here into the yard – that’s really all I can do – but the evenings are wonderful under the broken down old fruit trees, and I even fancy that I can hear the splashing of waves on the distant shore. I am laying a bit of turf in front of the bench where people stand and mercilessly stomp about as I “draw a crowd”. It’s my only positive contribution…. because now I’m trying to paint the landscape when the real leaves appear on the trees.”) This fragment of correspondence indicates that Schjerfbeck’s mobility was impaired, making the scenery of the yard even more important to her.

Schjerfbeck also painted a larger canvas of her work bench in the same year, with an eye-catching orange door featuring in a diversely worked composition. Her other well-known work bench subjects were created on paper. The special power of this small study in oils that is now offered for sale lies in its freshness and abstract character. The spontaneous and broad strokes of thin paint on the surface give rise to an energetic and airy setting for the green work bench and the artist’s thoughts. The bare and delicate tree trunks support an embedding of greenery against the white wall, with the minimal coloured surfaces fostering a relaxed and laid-back mood, even on a small scale.

Leena Ahtola-Moorhouse