Helene Schjerfbeck

Private collection, Helsinki

'The serenity of Helene Schjerfbeck's still lifes reflects the isolation and solitude through which the artist found the essential: the concentration of mind, contemplation and simplicity of expression provide immediate contact and impact'

(Helmiriitta Sariola, 'Nature morte' in Helene Schjerfbeck, Ateneum, exh. cat., Helsinki, 1992, p. 83).

Painted in the 1890s according to pigment analysis and the art historical insights of Leena Ahtola-Moorhouse, Schjerfbeck’s White Narcissus is a new discovery in the artist’s oeuvre. Even this early in her career, before fully embracing her later, more abstracted style, Schjerfbeck saw in still life the expressive potential of colour, shapes and rhythms. Still lifes were more than mere inanimate objects, becoming vehicles for the expression of her innermost thoughts and feelings – her love of nature, but also her keen awareness of the passage of time and the vulnerability of life, magnified by her own fragile health. Daffodils are traditionally the symbol of spring and rebirth, yet their blossom is a reminder that nothing lasts forever.