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Lot Essay
Shadow on the Wall (Skuggan pa muren) is a rich and vibrant example of Schjerfbeck's early work, executed when she was only twenty-one years old but already strongly resonant of her unique and powerful mature style. Schjerfbeck's stay in France from September 1880, made possible by a travel grant from the Finnish Imperial Senate, was to definitively shape her aesthetic. It was in Paris that she first saw the works of Cézanne, Manet and Van Gogh, later described in vivid detail to her biographer H. Ahtela (pseud. Einar Reuter) as a profoundly influential encounter. Schjerfbeck also experimented with the principles of French plein-air painting, to which the present work clearly owes a large debt. Shadow on the Wall, however, is not a landscape in the traditional sense of the genre, rather 'a painting which needs to be seen as an abstraction, in which the color tones create an intrinsic harmony of their own' (S. Sarajas-Korte, 'Towards Synthesis', in exh. cat. Helene Schjerfbeck, Ateneum, Helsinki, 1992, p. 25).
In July 1883 Schjerfbeck travelled from Paris to Pont-Aven in Brittany, staying at Julia Guillou's famous artists' lodging, the Hotel des Voyageurs. She travelled with one of her contemporaries at the Académie Colarossi in Paris, the Austrian artist Marianne Preindelsberger (later Stokes) and was later joined by her Finnish friend Maria Wiik. It was while in Pont-Aven that she met the Swedish artist August Hagborg and also the hugely renowned French artist Jules Bastien-Lepage, who was brought to see Schjerfbeck's work by his pupil, the American painter T. Alexander Harrison. She was to stay in Brittany until the spring of 1884, when she returned to Paris and then to Helsinki.
Painted in a park in Concarneau, just along the coast from Pont-Aven, Shadow on the Wall projects a powerful sense of solitude and simplicity. As sparse in subject matter as Park Bench (Parksoffan) from 1883 or The Door (Dörren) from the following year (fig. 2), Shadow on the Wall is as much about form and colour and the abstraction of linear shape as it is about the subject it presents. In fact, like the solitary and concentrated motifs in these other two powerful works, the adopted title of the painting serves only to highlight the strength of contrast between Schjerfbeck's powerful darker tones and her subtle lightness of stroke, as epitomized by the quick touches of yellow sunlight in the foreground.
Schjerfbeck had clearly learnt much from Cézanne's notions of form and depth during the time she spent in Paris. The construction of Shadow on the Wall echoes the planar method Cézanne employed to build up his pictorial surface in the Estaque pictures and other landscapes from the late 1870s and early 1880s. In fact, Shadow on the Wall bears a strong resemblance to Cézanne's Cour d'une ferme of circa 1879 (R.389; Musée d'Orsay, Paris) in its sense of enclosed space, its use of linear forms and in its subtle rhythms.
Shadow on the Wall was first owned by Karl Johan Enebäck in Tammisaari. Enebäck had won the painting as a prize in the Finnish Art Society lottery of 1912, an annual event to which Schjerfbeck regularly contributed pictures. Sometime before 1917 Gösta Stenman, Schjerfbeck's close friend and dealer, whom she had only recently met for the first time in 1913, acquired the painting from Enebäck for 1,000 marks. Stenman recalled in his autobiography in 1937 (loc. cit.) that he went to great lengths to track down Shadow on the Wall after he recalled that it was one of the few paintings about which Schjerfbeck was not entirely self-critical. 'What it is worth today [1937] is of course impossible to say, but I do not think that 100,000 marks is too much for one of Schjerfbeck's finest landscapes' (ibid.). The painting hung for many years in Stenman's private collection and was published twice in catalogues of his collection, once in 1918 and subsequently in 1932. It was acquired shortly after this by a client of Stenman's, Frithjof Tikanoja, who insisted that Stenman include Shadow on the Wall in a group of French paintings he was buying. 'I agreed and have never regretted it, because the painting went to a man worth owning it' (ibid.). Upon Tikanoja's death in 1964, his house and art collection were bequeathed to the town of Vasa and now comprise the Tikanoja Art Museum. Shadow on the Wall however was not included in the bequest, having been acquired by Ernst Willberg sometime before 1946.
Gösta Stenman exercised a marked influence on Schjerfbeck's choice of subject matter during her later years; it was Stenman who encouraged her to reprise and reinterpret some of her more important subjects, a defining motif of Schjerfbeck's art. There were always nuances or colours that could be altered or an interpretation that could be rendered differently. Not only did this afford the artist greater financial security, but was also a creatively satisfying method of working, allowing Schjerfbeck to further develop her minimalist approach of condensed simplification.
In 1927, several letters from Schjerfbeck to her close friend and biographer Einar Reuter reveal that Stenman had asked her to execute eight new 'reincarnations' of previous paintings. While working on these commissions for Stenman, Schjerfbeck developed a strong desire to paint a new version of Shadow on the Wall for herself (Ahtela 607; fig. 3, Sihtola Collection, Alvar Aalto Museum, Jyväskylä). As one of the few landscapes that she considered to have been a complete success, Schjerfbeck held the original Shadow on the Wall in extremely high regard and wanted to see how it would look in her new style. Two years later, in 1929, Schjerfbeck revisited the motif in oil once again, writing to Reuter on 10 July 'I have just done a Breton landscape that I never painted there, only wanted to' (Ahtela 641; fig. 4, Didrichsen Art Museum, Helsinki). In 1933, she returned to reinterpret Shadow on the Wall in oil for a third time, at Stenman's request (Ahtela 642; fig. 5). As well as the three oils, Ahtela lists a further three works on paper of this subject (nos. 643, 644 & 645), but there may be as many as nine reworkings in all from the 1920s and 1930s (see Sidoljus, Helsinki, 1992, published in conjunction with the Ateneum exh. cat.). The frequency with which Schjerfbeck reprised this motif within a reasonably short space of time suggests the high regard in which she held the first, original, composition. In fact, to name Schjerfbeck's most successful reinterpretations reads as a list of her most important and celebrated works; Shadow on the Wall, The Convalescent, Sjundby Manor, Dance Shoes, The Californian. Shadow on the Wall can be considered one of the first of Schjerfbeck's reprises of a previously successful motif, heralding a new and important phase in her art (ibid.).
In her increasing sensitivity to colour in the 1920s, Schjerfbeck simplifies the subtlety of her original palette and applies strokes of pure white light with great effect, particularly in the Didrichsen Museum version (fig. 4) in which she employs chalk as well as oil. In doing so she dramatically sharpens the contrasts of light and shade in the composition, paring the motif down to its absolute minimum, the 'shadow' of the title. However, Schjerfbeck has chosen not to significantly alter the composition or form of Shadow on the Wall from the original. In keeping with her developing aesthetic, she simplifies the constituent elements, but, finding the 1883 composition balanced and harmonious, retains the overall feel of the original; a bold and accomplished work, in which the subtle and powerful harmonies of colour and form combine to create an intense and dynamic composition.
In July 1883 Schjerfbeck travelled from Paris to Pont-Aven in Brittany, staying at Julia Guillou's famous artists' lodging, the Hotel des Voyageurs. She travelled with one of her contemporaries at the Académie Colarossi in Paris, the Austrian artist Marianne Preindelsberger (later Stokes) and was later joined by her Finnish friend Maria Wiik. It was while in Pont-Aven that she met the Swedish artist August Hagborg and also the hugely renowned French artist Jules Bastien-Lepage, who was brought to see Schjerfbeck's work by his pupil, the American painter T. Alexander Harrison. She was to stay in Brittany until the spring of 1884, when she returned to Paris and then to Helsinki.
Painted in a park in Concarneau, just along the coast from Pont-Aven, Shadow on the Wall projects a powerful sense of solitude and simplicity. As sparse in subject matter as Park Bench (Parksoffan) from 1883 or The Door (Dörren) from the following year (fig. 2), Shadow on the Wall is as much about form and colour and the abstraction of linear shape as it is about the subject it presents. In fact, like the solitary and concentrated motifs in these other two powerful works, the adopted title of the painting serves only to highlight the strength of contrast between Schjerfbeck's powerful darker tones and her subtle lightness of stroke, as epitomized by the quick touches of yellow sunlight in the foreground.
Schjerfbeck had clearly learnt much from Cézanne's notions of form and depth during the time she spent in Paris. The construction of Shadow on the Wall echoes the planar method Cézanne employed to build up his pictorial surface in the Estaque pictures and other landscapes from the late 1870s and early 1880s. In fact, Shadow on the Wall bears a strong resemblance to Cézanne's Cour d'une ferme of circa 1879 (R.389; Musée d'Orsay, Paris) in its sense of enclosed space, its use of linear forms and in its subtle rhythms.
Shadow on the Wall was first owned by Karl Johan Enebäck in Tammisaari. Enebäck had won the painting as a prize in the Finnish Art Society lottery of 1912, an annual event to which Schjerfbeck regularly contributed pictures. Sometime before 1917 Gösta Stenman, Schjerfbeck's close friend and dealer, whom she had only recently met for the first time in 1913, acquired the painting from Enebäck for 1,000 marks. Stenman recalled in his autobiography in 1937 (loc. cit.) that he went to great lengths to track down Shadow on the Wall after he recalled that it was one of the few paintings about which Schjerfbeck was not entirely self-critical. 'What it is worth today [1937] is of course impossible to say, but I do not think that 100,000 marks is too much for one of Schjerfbeck's finest landscapes' (ibid.). The painting hung for many years in Stenman's private collection and was published twice in catalogues of his collection, once in 1918 and subsequently in 1932. It was acquired shortly after this by a client of Stenman's, Frithjof Tikanoja, who insisted that Stenman include Shadow on the Wall in a group of French paintings he was buying. 'I agreed and have never regretted it, because the painting went to a man worth owning it' (ibid.). Upon Tikanoja's death in 1964, his house and art collection were bequeathed to the town of Vasa and now comprise the Tikanoja Art Museum. Shadow on the Wall however was not included in the bequest, having been acquired by Ernst Willberg sometime before 1946.
Gösta Stenman exercised a marked influence on Schjerfbeck's choice of subject matter during her later years; it was Stenman who encouraged her to reprise and reinterpret some of her more important subjects, a defining motif of Schjerfbeck's art. There were always nuances or colours that could be altered or an interpretation that could be rendered differently. Not only did this afford the artist greater financial security, but was also a creatively satisfying method of working, allowing Schjerfbeck to further develop her minimalist approach of condensed simplification.
In 1927, several letters from Schjerfbeck to her close friend and biographer Einar Reuter reveal that Stenman had asked her to execute eight new 'reincarnations' of previous paintings. While working on these commissions for Stenman, Schjerfbeck developed a strong desire to paint a new version of Shadow on the Wall for herself (Ahtela 607; fig. 3, Sihtola Collection, Alvar Aalto Museum, Jyväskylä). As one of the few landscapes that she considered to have been a complete success, Schjerfbeck held the original Shadow on the Wall in extremely high regard and wanted to see how it would look in her new style. Two years later, in 1929, Schjerfbeck revisited the motif in oil once again, writing to Reuter on 10 July 'I have just done a Breton landscape that I never painted there, only wanted to' (Ahtela 641; fig. 4, Didrichsen Art Museum, Helsinki). In 1933, she returned to reinterpret Shadow on the Wall in oil for a third time, at Stenman's request (Ahtela 642; fig. 5). As well as the three oils, Ahtela lists a further three works on paper of this subject (nos. 643, 644 & 645), but there may be as many as nine reworkings in all from the 1920s and 1930s (see Sidoljus, Helsinki, 1992, published in conjunction with the Ateneum exh. cat.). The frequency with which Schjerfbeck reprised this motif within a reasonably short space of time suggests the high regard in which she held the first, original, composition. In fact, to name Schjerfbeck's most successful reinterpretations reads as a list of her most important and celebrated works; Shadow on the Wall, The Convalescent, Sjundby Manor, Dance Shoes, The Californian. Shadow on the Wall can be considered one of the first of Schjerfbeck's reprises of a previously successful motif, heralding a new and important phase in her art (ibid.).
In her increasing sensitivity to colour in the 1920s, Schjerfbeck simplifies the subtlety of her original palette and applies strokes of pure white light with great effect, particularly in the Didrichsen Museum version (fig. 4) in which she employs chalk as well as oil. In doing so she dramatically sharpens the contrasts of light and shade in the composition, paring the motif down to its absolute minimum, the 'shadow' of the title. However, Schjerfbeck has chosen not to significantly alter the composition or form of Shadow on the Wall from the original. In keeping with her developing aesthetic, she simplifies the constituent elements, but, finding the 1883 composition balanced and harmonious, retains the overall feel of the original; a bold and accomplished work, in which the subtle and powerful harmonies of colour and form combine to create an intense and dynamic composition.