Comments on: Painters I should Have Known About (002) Albert Edelfelt part 2

By: michael

michael — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 22:00:36 +0000

@Leena Viitala: Thanks very much for the link. There is a lot of very useful information in that PDF. It’s a shame the pictures are in such low resolution. I hope visitors here will read this far down the page and follow your link.

By: Leena Viitala

Leena Viitala — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 20:03:01 +0000

douglasproductions.fiHello!
Here you can read more about Edelfelt in English: http://www.douglasproductions.fi/ruotsi/AlbertEdelfelt_eng.pdf

By: Leena Viitala

Leena Viitala — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 20:22:17 +0000

flickr.comHi!
Always nice to find Finnish painters in the Internet!
Actually, it wasn’t unusual for Finnish painters or sculptors to study and live in Paris at that time – they were quite many. Here are some other more or less notable artists who lived there at the same time with Edelfelt: Akseli Gallen-Kallela (originally Axel Gallen), Helene Schjerfbeck, Eero Järnefelt, Väinö Blomstedt, Walter Runeberg, Pekka Halonen (who was teached by Paul Gauguin), Gunnar Berndtson (Edelfel’s friend and related to his wife), Ellen Thesleff.
And did you know that Vincent van Gogh mentions Edelfelt to his brother Theo in one of his letters? He had seen Edelfelt’s painting at the Salon and was impressed.
Gunnar Berndtson and Edelfelt had there atelier in same adress and they even painted the same model (even in the same dress): http://paintingdb.com/view.pl?image_id=5298 and http://www.flickr.com/photos/floridagirl7/3880868315/
Edelfelt had his atelier left in Paris until 1905 but didn’t stay there much during the last years.
More Edelfelt here (Russian pages): http://allday.ru/index.php?newsid=175866

By: michael

michael — Wed, 13 May 2009 21:54:11 +0000

@Jane Ellis…You are absolutely correct.

Edelfelt had three sisters. Ellen, who died of tuberculosis in 1876, Berta, the subject of the two portraits above, and Annie.

Thanks for the additional information.
I have been justified in calling this series: “Parading my ignorance”!

By: Jane Ellis

Jane Ellis — Wed, 13 May 2009 18:37:45 +0000

Let me continue. In fact, there was a rumor going around that Edelfelt had two more children made with his lover and model “Virginie” in the 1880`s. But we donÂ´t have any further information about this matter. So, in officially Edelfelt had only one son, Erik Edelfelt, who died in 1907 in the age of 17.

By: Jane Ellis

Jane Ellis — Wed, 13 May 2009 18:33:48 +0000

Excuse me, but Albert Edelfelt didnÂ´t have a daughter! That girl was her sister.

By: michael

michael — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 00:09:08 +0000

@Jane, I’d like to thank you very much for adding meaning and context for this picture. I always wondered about that faraway, glassy stare. If you click on the little picture, you’ll find the magnified version that springs up has her name in the border. Because I don’t speak Finnish, I didn’t realise that the words “Larin Paraske” were the woman’s name. Thanks for the enlightenment!

By: Jane Tozer

Jane Tozer — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 16:55:42 +0000

Perhaps you’ve been told that the “Lady Dreaming Outside Church” is the portrait of an extraordinary woman called Larin Paraske. The picture was probably painted in her home village in what is now Russian Karelia. Rather than dreaming, it’s more likely that she’s in a creative trance. A renowned poem-singer, Paraske memorised thousands of songs, including passages from the great Finnish myth-sequence, Kalevala. Her work was transcribed & notated by a pastor, who went with her to Helsinki, where she performed to great acclaim. Her singing was a major influence on the music of Sibelius, and a beacon to the movement for Finnish independence. Without Paraske, a huge body of oral culture would have been lost to the world. The language she spoke, Ingrian-Finnish, is now seriously endangered. Look her up on the web. She’s an inspiration to us all. In case you’re wondering about my interest in her, I’m a poet myself. Best wishes, Jane