Celebrated in the Nordic countries, Finnish painter Helene Schjerfbeck (1862-1946) still remains little known outside that geographical area. The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York is dedicating Seeing Silence: The Paintings of Helene Schjerfbeck to her, the first major retrospective organized in the United States. The exhibition, on view from December 5, 2025 to April 5, 2026 and curated by Dita Amory, curator in charge of the Robert Lehman Collection at the Metropolitan Museum, and Anna-Maria von Bonsdorff, director of the Ateneum Art Museum, brings together nearly sixty paintings, thanks in part to significant loans from theAteneum Art Museum, other Finnish museums, and private collections in Finland and Sweden.
Originally from Helsinki, Schjerfbeck went through the Civil War and two world wars, also witnessing the emergence of a new national identity after Finland’s independence from Russia in 1917. Although marked by personal difficulties and an existence spent largely in a remote Nordic village, far from the main cultural centers of Europe, his determination to pursue his passion toward painting always remained unwavering. In one of his best-known statements he reiterated the absolute centrality of art in his life: “All I want is to paint...there is always something to conquer.”
The exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum will offer a thematic journey through Schjerfbeck’s entire artistic evolution, from his beginnings in Helsinki to his final years in Sweden, highlighting his transition from traditional naturalistic subjects to increasingly essential painting. The artist often intervened on the surface of his paintings by sanding or scratching the layers of color, sometimes going so far as to reveal the rough grain of the canvas as he experimented with new technical and material possibilities. A singular figure in the vast panorama of modernist languages that were emerging around the world in the early twentieth century, Schjerfbeck developed an unmistakable visual language, which is why he deserves full recognition within the established narratives of art history.
"Seeing Silence highlights the work of an extraordinary artist who, although long celebrated in Norway and Sweden as the most outstanding painter of her time, has yet to achieve the visibility she deserved on this side of the Atlantic," said Max Hollein, director and CEO of the Metropolitan Museum. “The exhibition invites the public to discover the fascinating works and distinctive vision of Helene Schjerfbeck for the first time in a major U.S. museum, showcasing the extraordinary perspective and introspection of an artist entirely dedicated to her art over the course of eight decades.”
“Painting in remote Finland, without recourse to broader culture and the exchange of contemporary ideas, Schjerfbeck created his own language every day at his easel by sheer force of will,” said Dita Amory, curator in charge of the Robert Lehman Collection at the Metropolitan Museum."Seeing Silence looks beyond the cultural mainstream of art history to a woman who overcame immense struggles to produce a powerful body of work, highlighting her rightful place in the history of modernism."
The creation of the exhibition was made possible through the support of Elsa A. Brule and is a collaboration between the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Ateneum Art Museum.
Pictured: Helene Schjerfbeck, Self-Portrait (1912; oil on canvas, 43.5 x 42 cm; Helsinki, Ateneum Art Museum). Photo: Ateneum Art Museum / Yehia Eweis
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| The Metropolitan Museum in New York dedicates a major retrospective exhibition to Finnish painter Helene Schjerfbeck |
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