Lot 182: Helene Schjerfbeck (1862-1946)

Helene Schjerfbeck (1862-1946)
Läsande flicka (Girl Reading)
signed with the initials 'HS' (lower right)
pencil on paper
11¼ x 7 1/8 in. (28.5 x 18 cm.)
Drawn in 1907

Helsinki, Ateneum, Helene Schjerfbeck, February - April 1992, no. 193 (illustrated in the catalogue p. 196).

H. Ahtela [Einar Reuter], Helena Schjerfbeck, Helsinki, 1953, no. 337.

Gösta Stenman, Stockholm.
Acquired in the 1950s and thence by descent to the present owner.

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium, which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.
The present work is a study for the left hand figure in Girls Reading of 1907 (Ateneum 194; Ateneum, Helsinki) and may also be related to The Novel, 1909/1910 (Ostrobothnian Museum, Vaasa). The model is Irene Lintumäki, whose father was working for the Railway and whose family lived next door to Schjerfbeck in Hyvinkää (see lot 181). The study of a man's hand on the reverse is almost certainly a study for the hands of the man in The Tapestry, 1914-1916 (Ateneum 235) although he holds them differently in the final version.
Helene Schjerfbeck, Girls reading, 1907, Ateneum, Helsinki
DACS 2010