Venny Soldan-Brofeldt

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Hanna Pauli: Portrait of Venny Soldan-Brofeldt
Venny Soldan-Brofeldt: Heränneitä

Venny Soldan-Brofeldt (born November 2, 1863 in Helsinki as Wendla Irene Soldan ; died October 10, 1945 in Lohja ) was a Finnish-Swedish painter , illustrator , sculptor , photographer and designer .

Live and act

Venny Soldan-Brofeldt's father August Fredrik Soldan was the director of the “Mint of Finland”, her mother Marie Müller was a German. Swedish and German were spoken in the family. With the support of her family, she studied from 1880 at the drawing school of the Finnish Art Association (today the Academy of Fine Arts Helsinki), as well as with the painter Maria Wiik and from 1883 to 1884 at the St. Petersburg Central School for Technical Drawing, founded by Alexander von Stieglitz . Her teachers there are unknown, she expressed her desire to study with Ilya Repin in Russia .

From 1885 she completed studies at the Paris Académie Colarossi for some time . The famous portrait, painted in 1887 by her friend and colleague Hanna Pauli, shows her working in their joint studio in the Montparnasse district of Paris , with a lump of clay in her hand. “We didn't have any major debts back then. The studio was very cold and damp; my Finnish friend was sitting there wearing a muff when I painted her. The material things in life hardly bothered us ... ”She mentioned Pascal Dagnan-Bouveret as her most important teacher .

In 1886 she went on a painting trip to Barbizon with Hanna Pauli and Eva Bonnier . Further study trips took her to Spain and Italy. She financed the trips by copying works by old masters. After returning to Helsinki, she worked as an art teacher. She was an active feminist , rode a bicycle, smoked a pipe and wore trousers, which at the time was not yet allowed for women and was considered "shocking".

In 1890 she met the writer Juhani Aho , whom she married in 1891; in doing so, she took on its real name "Brofeldt". Together they moved to the countryside in Ullanlinna , on the shores of Lake Tuusula. Their house became a meeting place for u. a. Jean Sibelius , Pekka Halonen , Arvid Järnefelt , Werner Söderhjelm . Albert Edelfelt , Axel Gallén and Eero Järnefelt.

The couple traveled extensively and eventually settled in Hausjärvi , where their first son, the filmmaker Heikki Aho , was born in 1895 . During this time, a parallel relationship developed between her husband and her younger sister Tilly, who was also staying there for her domestic support. Nevertheless, the marriage was upheld and in 1900 their second son, the writer Antti Aho, was born. However, in 1902 Tilly also gave birth to a son Juhani ( Björn Soldan ), but from then on lived in Järvenpää .

After the Russian governor general Nikolai Bobrikow had blacklisted Juhani in 1903 because his brother had violated censorship laws, the couple emigrated from 1903 to 1904, first to Tyrol , then to Venice and Florence . After Bobrikov's death they returned to Helsinki.

Her husband died in 1921. In the following time she traveled a lot, often as a representative of the photo and film company of her son and her nephew, Aho & Soldan . 1922–1923 she studied wood carving in the Bavarian town of Oberammergau - a technique that she then used for her sculptural work.

In the so-called Winter War she moved to Lohja and died there in 1945. According to her wishes, she was not buried next to her husband, but in her family's grave. Shortly before her death, she burned the correspondence between her husband and her sister.

plant

Venny Soldan-Brofeldt worked continuously and achieved great recognition with her artistic work. She received government travel grants, one of her works was presented at the World Exhibition in Paris in 1889 , and at the World Exhibition in Paris in 1900 she won a bronze medal with another painting.

Her painting Heränneitä (“Pietists”), which she created in 1898 and repainted several times in variations, achieved special recognition and is one of her central works. She also gained popularity and prestige through portraits , nudes , interiors and maritime landscapes . Inspired by the rural population, who has always been an important painterly subject for her, in 1898 she created the painting Väckta (“Awakening”), one of her main works .

Her international education and the experiences of her travels are reflected in her works. She considered her painting Måltid i bondstugan ("Meal in the Farmhouse"), which was made after a trip to Karelia (1892), as one of her most important works. In her work, she processed influences from Nordic, French and Russian realism and naturalism . A closeness to Karelianism can also be seen in some of her works, as well as the intensive practical study of the Old Masters gained in her work as a copyist. She used a wide variety of techniques, both painting and illustration and graphics.

As an illustrator, she specialized in children's books. She illustrated books by the authors Anni Swan and Joel Lehtonen and designed her own books - the best known is Merimajamme ja me ("Our Sea and Us") from 1930. She also designed furniture and textile design and took part in architectural competitions, including a competition for the Lalluka Artists' Home . In 1933 it became its honorary spokesperson, the first artist residency in Finland, built in the functionalist style by Gösta Juslen.

Reception today

Since the 2000s, her artistic work has again received increasing attention and recognition, so her works have been represented in group exhibitions in large museums, including the Ateneum of the Finnish National Gallery , the Helsinki Art Gallery , the Mikkeli Art Museum and the Kumu Tallinn .

In 2003 Finnish television produced the biography Venny in the form of a TV mini-series. The film focuses on the time up to Juhani's death, particularly illuminating the triangular relationship with Tilly.

In addition, the author Tuula Levo published a fictional novel, Neiti Soldan ("Fräulein Soldan") in 2000, which focuses on Tilly Soldan and which became a bestseller in Finland.

Literature (selection)

  • Walter Shaw Sparrow: Woman painters of the world. London 1905
  • Venny Soldan-Brofeldt (Ed .: Anti J. Aho): Venny Soldan-Brofeldt (Ja Hanen Maailmansa, Luonnoksia ja Muistelmia). Helsinki 1946, ISBN 9-5-1028578-1 .
  • Riitta Kottinen: Boheemielämä. Venny Soldan-Brofeldtin taiteilijantie. Otava 1996, ISBN 9-5-1113043-9 .
  • Riitta Kottinen: Soldan-Brofeldt, Venny. In: Biografiskt Lexikon för Finland. 2009, ISBN 978-951-583-185-9 .
  • Barbara Beuys: In: Helene Schjerfbeck - The painter from Finland. Berlin 2016, ISBN 978-3-458-17689-3 .
  • Ringa Takanen: Awakening Beauty: A Woman on the Verge of Emancipation? Case-Study of Venny Soldan-Brofeldt's Jesus Raising Jairus' Daughter. Ühing 2017.

Web links

Commons : Venny Soldan-Brofeldt  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Venny Soldan-Brofeldt: Soldan-Brofeldt, Venny: Suomi on kaunis. Finland is beautiful. Beautiful Finland. 1931, Retrieved April 25, 2020 (American English).
  2. ^ Académie Colarossi Archives. In: The Art Bog. Retrieved April 25, 2020 (American English).
  3. ^ Female Artists in History. Retrieved April 25, 2020 .
  4. ↑ a b c d e f g h Biografisk lexikon för Finland: Soldan-Brofeldt, Venny. In: blf.fi. Retrieved March 25, 2020 (Finnish).
  5. ↑ New roles for women. Retrieved April 25, 2020 .
  6. ↑ https://www.facebook.com/female.artists.in.history/photos/a.1462225420729009/1462225427395675/?type=1&theater
  7. ↑ https://www.visittuusulanjarvi.fi/en/artist-community/artist-venny-soldan-brofeldt
  8. ^ Académie Colarossi Archives. In: The Art Bog. Retrieved April 25, 2020 (American English).
  9. ^ Académie Colarossi Archives. In: The Art Bog. Retrieved April 25, 2020 (American English).
  10. ↑ http://www.ahosoldan.com/home.html
  11. ^ Académie Colarossi Archives. In: The Art Bog. Retrieved April 25, 2020 (American English).
  12. ↑ Barbara Beuys: Helene Schjerfbeck: The painter from Finland . Insel Verlag, 2016, ISBN 978-3-458-74942-4 ( google.de [accessed April 25, 2020]).
  13. ^ Female Artists in History. Retrieved April 25, 2020 .
  14. ^ Académie Colarossi Archives. In: The Art Bog. Retrieved April 25, 2020 (American English).
  15. ^ Lallukka Artists' Home · Finnish Architecture Navigator. Retrieved April 25, 2020 (American English).
  16. ↑ ArtFacts: https://artfacts.net/artist/venny-soldan-brofeldt/157266/biography. Retrieved April 25, 2020 .
  17. ^ The Visit: Eero Järnefelt and Venny Soldan-Brofeldt. Accessed April 25, 2020 (English).
  18. ↑ IMDb: Venny. Retrieved March 25, 2020 (English).
  19. ^ Tuula Levo. Retrieved April 25, 2020 .
  20. ^ Getty Research Institute: Women painters of the world, from the time of Caterina Vigri, 1413-1463, to Rosa Bonheur and the present day; . London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1905 ( archive.org [accessed March 25, 2020]).
  21. ^ Venny Soldan-Brofeldt ja hänen maailmansa - Luonnoksia ja muistelmia . ( antikvaari.fi [accessed April 25, 2020]).
  22. ↑ Riitta Konttinen. In: Otava. Retrieved April 25, 2020 (Finnish).
  23. ↑ Barbara Beuys: Helene Schjerfbeck: The painter from Finland . Insel Verlag, 2016, ISBN 978-3-458-74942-4 ( google.de [accessed April 25, 2020]).
  24. ↑ https://www.ceeol.com/search/article-detail?id=710850
personal data
SURNAME Soldan-Brofeldt, Venny
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Soldan-Brofeldt, Wendla Irene
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Finnish-Swedish painter, sculptor, illustrator and designer
DATE OF BIRTH November 2, 1863
PLACE OF BIRTH Helsinki
DATE OF DEATH October 10, 1945
Place of death Lohja