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Helena Westermarck
Helena Westermarck
	Westermarck in 1894
Born	Helena Charlotta Westermarck; 20 November 1857; Helsinki, Grand Duchy of Finland
Died	5 April 1938 (aged 80); Helsinki, Finland
Nationality	Finnish
Known for	Painter, writer

Helena Charlotta Westermarck (20 November 1857, Helsinki – 5 April 1938, Helsinki) was a Swedish-speaking Finnish artist and writer.^[1]^[2]^[3] She is known for her pioneering biographies of women.^[4]

Biography

Westermarck studied art at the Drawing School of the Finnish Art Society and the private academy of Adolf von Becker. During her studies, she met Helene Schjerfbeck, who remained a close friend for the rest of their lives. Westermarck and Schjerfbeck were a part of a group of female artists, "the painter sisters." This group included Maria Wiik and Elin Danielson-Gambogi.^[5]

Westermarck worked for long periods in France, often in the company of Schjerfbeck, and developed a sensible realistic style especially with portraits and figure compositions. At the Exposition Universelle (1889), she received honorable mention for her painting Strykerskor.

After contracting tuberculosis in 1884, she abandoned painting and devoted herself to writing as a critic.^[6]

Westermarck began her writing career as a novelist. Her novels can be looked at as an artifact of women's history and the everyday life of upper- and middle-class women.^[4] She edited the Swedish-language women's magazine Nutid.^[7]

Westermarck also made a significant contribution as a researcher through her cultural and historical works. In her research, she worked beside her brother, Edvard Westermarck, in the British Library.^[4] She began her pioneering biographic works in the early 1890s. These works include a series of biographies of female figures. Many of her biographies are on unknown female painters who were "discovered" in the 1980s, including Mathilda Rotkirch (1926). She also wrote about women who were pioneers in their respective fields, including Elisabeth Blomqvist (1916–17), Adelaide Ehrnrooth (1928), and Rosina Heikel (1930).

Westermarck's memoir was published in 1941.^[8]

Selected works

Ur studieboken I–II: Berättelser och utkast, 1890–91
Framåt. Berättelse, 1894
George Eliot och den engelska naturalistiska romanen. En litterär studie, 1894
Nyländska folksagor berättade för ungdom af Helena Westermarck, 1897
Lifvets seger, 1898
"Tecken och minnesskrift från adertonhundratalet" I-III, 1900–1911:
- I I fru Ulrikas hem. Interiör från farmödrarnas tid, 1900
- II Ljud i natten. Berättelse, 1903
- III Vandrare. Roman, 1911
Fredrika Runeberg. En litterär studie, 1904
Dolda makter. Bilder och hägringar, 1905
Bönhörelse. En historia, 1909
Kvinnospår. Kulturbilder från 1800-talets förra del, 1913
Elisabeth Blomqvist. Hennes Liv och gärning I–II, 1916–17
Vägvisare. Berättelse, 1922
Mathilda Rotkirch, Finlands första målarinna. En kulturbild, 1926
Adelaïde Ehrnrooth. Kvinnospår i finländskt kulturliv, 1928
Finlands första kvinnliga läkare Rosina Heikel, 1930
Tre konstnärinnor. Fanny Churberg, Maria Wiik och Sigrid af Forselles, 1937
Mina levnadsminnen, 1941

Gallery

Portrait of watchmaker Anders Wilhelm Felixzon, unknown date
General Albert Westermarck, c. 1880
Abyssinian, 1880
Colarossi's Son, 1881
Ironesses; An Important Question, 1883
An Old Woman, 1883
Children in a Cottage, 1892

References

^ Konttinen, Riitta (22 April 2015). "Westermarck, Helena (1857–1938)". Kansallisbiografia. Retrieved 18 August 2020.
^ "Westermarck, Helena". Kirjasampo. Retrieved 18 August 2020.
^ Uimonen, Anu (8 September 2009). "Taiteilija kysyi tärkeitä kysymyksiä". Helsingin Sanomat. Retrieved 18 August 2020.
^ ^a ^b ^c Women telling nations. Amelia Sanz Cabrerizo, Francesca Scott, Suzanna van Dijk. Amsterdam: Editions Rodopi. 2014. ISBN 978-94-012-1112-3. OCLC 897069728.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
^ "Description of Portrait of Helena Westermarck". taide.art.
^ Alarto, Anne; Kyrki, Irma; Saraste, Maija. "Sara's sisters: The tradition of women's literature in Finland from the 19th century to the early 20th century" (PDF) (in Finnish). Oulu City Library-Provincial Library. Retrieved 13 November 2019.
^ Julia Dahlberg (2018). "When artists became intellectuals:Female artistic persona and science as a significant other". Persona Studies. 4 (1): 64. doi:10.21153/ps2018vol4no1art688.
^ "Westermarck, Helena" (in Swedish). Uppslagsverket Finland. Retrieved 26 June 2016.

External links

Helene Westermarck at Nordisk familjebok – Uggleupplagan. 32. Werth–Väderkvarn / col. 45–46 (1921).
Dahlberg, Julia (2018). "When Artists Became Intellectuals. Female Artistic Persona and Science as a Significant Other", Persona Studies 4:1 (2018), 60–73.