Tove Jansson

Tove Jansson spent her summers from childhood in the Pellinki archipelago outside Porvoo, which became the most beloved and significant place in the artist's life. In Pellinki, the days were devoted to outdoor life, and here Jansson learned to admire the phenomena of nature, whose exciting moods are already reflected in her childhood diaries and later in the Moomin stories.

The Jansson family rented their first summer house from the local Gustafsson family. The families were close and one summer Tove Jansson's father, Viktor "Faffan" Jansson, used the Gustafsson's boathouse as his studio. Gustafsson's son Albert became a close and lifelong friend to Tove. When Albert's daughter got married, Tove Jansson gave the newlyweds a still life, painted in Albert's boathouse, with artist's materials placed on the work table. The sea is visible through the window in the background. The work shows a lushness typical of Jansson's still lifes from the 1940s and 1950s, but at the same time the colour palette is coolly calm.