Venny Soldan-Brofeldt

The European White Birch is Finland’s National Tree. In southern Finland it is in bloom between May-April. Its yellow pollen lends the landscape a shimmering golden tonality.

The present work is one of the artists last known works. She died in 1945, the same year that it was painted. The artist has opposed a pair of Birch twigs with a bunch of pollen against what appears to be an extensive lake landscape. This suggests that the picture was painted at Lohjanharju, a 200 km long ridge in the most southern part of Finland 125 km southwest of Helsinki stretching in the direction towards Hangö, where Soldan-Brofeldt from 1939 lived in a cottage she had built (J. Antti Aho, Venny Soldan-Brofeldt och hennes värld. Skisser och minnen, 1946). She painted several lake landscapes in the region. The present work is one of the artists last known works. She died in 1945, the same year that it was painted.

In 2019, Järvenpää Art Museum and Adamson-Eric Museum staged an exhibition ”The Visit: Eero Järnefelt (1863-1937) and Venny Soldan-Brofeldt" as part of a series of exhibitions of outstanding artists of the Finnish Golden Age. The picture advertising the exhibition, a picture by Soldan-Brofeldt entitled "Lake Hildenvisi After Sunset", from 1943, is colour wise very similar to the present work (see fig).