Helene Schjerfbeck

Lena Holger writes in her essay "The Drawings of Helene Schjerfbeck" (Raster Förlag, Stockholm, 1994): "To draw meant different things for Schjerfbeck. Sometimes it was an attitude, a way to test the form, a preparation and an exercise for the motif or model. A way to explore the subject and grapple with its possibilities. The goal was to paint, and the act of drawing was initially the most important preparatory tool." During her youth, Schjerfbeck drew in pencil or watercolour, while the accomplished artist Schjerfbeck preferred to work in charcoal. In her later years, she created several bold self-portraits in charcoal and pencil.

In the auction's sketch, we can follow how Schjerfbeck explores different ways to approach the relationship between the two "friends." The figure on the left sits upright with her hands stiffly placed in her lap. The face is expressionless, the depiction stripped down, almost cold. The figure on the right radiates a longing for closeness; at times she leans towards her friend and clings to her with her arms wrapped around her neck. At other times, she withdraws with a sadly resigned expression, skillfully evoked with a few accentuating strokes of Schjerfbeck's charcoal pencil. In the finished version of "The Friends," the two women are depicted side by side, without touching or communicating with each other.

Image: "The Friends," Helene Schjerfbeck, National Gallery, Finland - CC0.