Girl from Loviisa 1941 - 1942

Helene Schjerfbeck’s 'Girl from Loviisa' is a painting made with oil on canvas. There's a restrained approach to both mark-making and the color palette in this piece, and it's what gives it an incredible sense of process. Looking closely, you can really see the material aspects of the work: thin layers of paint, softly blended, creating a surface that's almost like skin. There's a tension between revealing and concealing the underlying structure, isn't there? The physical presence of the paint is so delicate; it's as if Schjerfbeck wanted to capture a fleeting moment. Take the mouth, that soft pink, it is both there and not there, so present and yet somehow distant. The painting reminds me of the work of Gwen John, another artist who favored muted tones and introspective subjects. In both artists' work, ambiguity allows for multiple interpretations rather than fixed meanings.