COMMENT: Welcome addition to Ateneum collection
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By Anu Uimonen
The Schjerfbeck collection of the Ateneum Art Museum of the Finnish National Gallery grew by one third when the paintings donated by Yrjö and Nanny Kaunisto were added to the museum's collection.
Helene Schjerfbeck (1862-1946) is undoubtedly the most respected Finnish artist at the moment.
Her works are constantly sold at the world's leading art auctions at prices that are so high that the National Gallery usually has no possibility to acquire them.
Therefore, getting the Kaunisto collection as a donation is a major event for the gallery.
The focus of the Schjerfbeck collection in the Ateneum has been on the artist's early production. Therefore, it is fitting that the Kaunisto collection focuses on the later paintings, even though the timeline of the works is fairly long - from 1907 to 1945.
Of the 35 Schjerfbeck paintings in the Kaunisto collection, 29 are oils and six are gouache or watercolours.
Superintendent Leena Ahtola-Moorhouse was the curator of the extensive Schjerfbeck exhibition held in the Ateneum in 1992. She has good reason to be pleased at the works now acquired by the museum.
"For instance, we were not able to find The Circus Girl anywhere, although we knew it existed. It came to the Bukowski auction after the Ateneum exhibition in 1994, and fortunately the Kaunistos were able to buy it. Now it is here."
"We have always been jealous over the Sjundby Manor painting, which the Turku Art Museum has in its collection. Now we got another version of it."
Schjerfbeck's famous series of self-portraits in the Ateneum got a new one from 1945.
Ahtola-Moorhouse recalls that her predecessors, Leena Peltola and Salme Sarjas-Korte had told her about a difficult situation they had faced in 1959. Two magnificent still lifes were available - one of them depicted green pears, and another had green apples and a champagne glass. However, there was only enough money for one of them.
"They chose the pears, but now Green Apples and a Champagne Glass is also in the Ateneum."
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 10.11.2005
More on this subject:
 Finnish National Gallery gets massive donation of Schjerfbeck work
BACKGROUND: A long life promoting art and medicine
Helsingin Sanomat
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