Helene Schjerfbeck - Smiling Girl [1921]

Helene Schjerfbeck - Smiling Girl [1921], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

Helene Schjerfbeck (Helsinki, July 10, 1862 - Saltsjobaden, Sweden, January 23, 1946) was a Finnish painter. In 1879, at the age of 17, Schjerfbeck began to be recognized for her art. She won third prize in a competition organised by the Finnish Art Society. Her art career started to blossom when some of her work was displayed in an annual Finnish Art Society exhibition in 1880. In the 1890s Schjerfbeck started teaching regularly at the Art Society drawing school. She produced still lifes and landscapes, as well as portraits, such as that of her mother, local school girls and women workers, and also self-portraits. Comparisons have been made with artists such as James McNeill Whistler and Edvard Munch, but as of 1905, her paintings take on a characteristic that can be attributed to her alone.

[Oil and mixed media on paper, 32 x 27.5 cm]