The Self Portraiture of Helene Schjerfbeck, Romaine Brooks, and Marianne Werefkin

The Compass Volume 1 Issue 4 Volume 1, Issue 4, The Compass Article 3 January 2017 Redefining the Gaze: The Self Portraiture of Helene Schjerfbeck, Romaine Brooks, and Marianne Werefkin Megan D'Avella Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.arcadia.edu/thecompass Recommended Citation Megan D'Avella (2017) "Redefining the Gaze: The Self Portraiture of Helene Schjerfbeck, Romaine Brooks, and Marianne Werefkin," The Compass: Vol. 1 : Iss. 4 , Article 3. Available at: https://scholarworks.arcadia.edu/thecompass/vol1/iss4/3 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by ScholarWorks@Arcadia. It has been accepted for inclusion in The Compass by an authorized editor of ScholarWorks@Arcadia. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Redefining the Gaze: The Self-Portraiture of Helene Schjerfbeck, Romaine Brooks, and Marianne Werefkin By Megan D’Avella, Arcadia University Introduction manner, males boldly presented themselves through self-imagery.1 This can make early Throughout the history of art, self-portrai- female self-portraiture difficult to read autobi- ture has been explored by artists as means ographically, as a subdued painting does not to emphasize their artistic capabilities, claim necessarily translate into a subdued woman. their importance in modern art, and solidify Keeping in mind the traditional stan- their existence. The work accomplished by dard of female portraiture, the un-idealized female artists, however, must be considered self-representations that Helen Schjerfbeck, separately from the overall genre of portrai- Romaine Brooks, and Marianne Werefkin ture. Women in the early twentieth century painted were no small statement at the turn of needed to approach the canvas with careful the century. They shifted away from canonical consideration of past representations of their art historical representations and cemented gender. Additionally, women were mindful themselves in modernity. Pursuing an artistic of how their technique would impress upon career was a bold choice for women, but creat- critics. Helen Schjerfbeck, Romaine Brooks, ing art that went against traditional standards and Marianne Werefkin distanced them- was revolutionary. By utilizing innovative selves from the artistic historical tradition techniques, representing the internal expe- of idealized female portraiture by creating rience, and challenging the male gaze, these self-representations that emphasized the in- three women turned away from the acade- ternal experience as opposed to the external. my and changed the way female artists were By approaching the subject of self, an perceived. These women personify the femme artist is blurring the lines between creator and nouvelle, the independent woman who is not model. Unlike their male counterparts, female weighted with the pressures of conventional artists considered the historical significance of femininity.2 Their self-portraits aim not to female models. Up until the twentieth century, describe their appearance, but to explain who women were usually portrayed with elegant they are. beauty, as objects to be admired. Paired with The desire to represent the internal ex- the unforgiving cynicism of contemporary crit- perience was born alongside the introduction of ics, women had to carefully plan and execute psychoanalysis in the late nineteenth century. their self-portraits. While female painters often This breakthrough was significant to artists, portrayed themselves in a quieter, predictable 1Frances Borzello, Seeing Ourselves: Women’s Self-Portraits (New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1998), 18. 2Ibid, at125. 35 many of whom took it as an opportunity to Marianne Werefkin fits within the latter ste- discover their inner selves. Introspection was reotype; although she was a founding member the central focus in the self-portraits of Helen of Der Blaue Reiter, she is often mentioned in Schjerfbeck, Romaine Brooks, and Marianne relation to Alexei Jawlensky. Regardless of Werefkin. The fact that these women never met her standing within art history, Werefkin was and, likely, never heard of each other proves a leading intellectual at the turn-of-the-cen- the international attraction to psychoanalytic tury. Her salon was visited by famous artists, approaches to artistic production. They were dancers, and composers where they contem- separated by country, style, and time, yet all plated the concepts of modern art. As an artist, three women expressed themselves in similarly Werefkin shied away from the extreme ab- unconventional ways. By grouping them to- straction of her colleague Wassily Kandinsky. gether, it is evident that they shared a common Romaine Brooks is over ten years sensitivity to the artist’s mind. younger than both Schjerfbeck and Werefkin, Looking at the artists individually, it is but her work is timeless. Her individualized evident that their processes and experiences style paired with a cosmopolitan lifestyle puts with art varied greatly. Helene Schjerfbeck, her between the extreme isolation of Schjerf- the most prolific self-portraitist of the three, beck and the intellectually driven Werefkin. spent much of her career working in isolation. Seeing great success during her lifetime, Although she found great success at the Paris Brooks was a much sought-after portraitist Salon and within the artist communities in the among the elite class. Most women artists of city, Schjerfbeck was forced to return to Fin- the time were not graced with the same over- land due to her financial and family situations. whelming praise. There was a seemingly con- Severed from the modernity of the continent, scious effort to dissuade women from pursuing Schjerfbeck found herself in the middle of an art.4 Such criticism was not only influenced entirely different art scene. Finnish artists by the apparent belief that they were less were interested in nationalism, preferring talented, but also because the late nineteenth patriotic themes over genre paintings. A dis- century saw an abundance of female painters. taste for this work led, in part, to Schjerfbeck’s Industrialized society enabled women to leave hermetic lifestyle. the home and pursue artistic opportunities. Si- It was not uncommon for female artists multaneously, women were allowed into places like Helene Schjerfbeck to work in isolation, of art education. Paula Modersohn-Becker and Käthe Kollwitz Criticism was also evoked in the mode are other notable examples. This could be of abstract art, despite the proliferation of attributed, in part, to the lack of openness in modern artistic movements at the turn-of-the- welcoming women into art movements. Even century. Critics preferred traditional represen- though the early twentieth century was a time tations, especially from women. There was a of rapid artistic development, experimenta- fear that if women started to break away from tion, and optimism, most women associated this artistry, they would also decide to sepa- with major artistic movements are recognized rate themselves from other societal confines.5 only by their connection with male members.3 Schjerfbeck, Brooks, and Werefkin all worked 3Elsa Honig Fine, Women and Art (New Jersey: Rowman & Allanheld Publishers, 1993), 142. 4Ahtola-Moorhouse 2007, 23. 5James Hall, The Self-Portrait: A Cultural History (London: Thames and Hudson, 2014), 224. 36 in some form of abstraction. Schjerfbeck’s wards abstraction, these teachings created a work progressively becomes more obscure foundation that Schjerfbeck carried with her throughout her life, eventually paring down throughout her life. This pattern was echoed details until only a shadow of a figure remains. in the lives of Romaine Brooks and Marianne Brooks explores abstraction through a limited Werefkin. Two factors may have influenced each palette and new forms of figuration. Werefkin of their turns against the academy. The first was makes a dramatic jump in her work from nat- a major shift in the art world at the fin de siècle uralistic art to abstract, using expressionist towards modernism and abstraction, to which all techniques to bring color to the forefront. three artists reacted in their work. Schjerfbeck All three women went against the and Werefkin tended towards these movements, traditional modes of creation, both within the creating work that challenged contemporary broader realm of painting and within the genre standards. Brooks aimed for an art that re- of portraiture. Their work signifies a change turned to tradition, preferring strict aesthetic in women’s self-perception and empowerment. to loose abstraction. The second factor was the They forewent the beautification of the past in distinct critical distaste for female artists, which favor of more honest representations. many women responded to by pushing back with In this paper, I will individually consid- even more controversial artworks.6 The lack of er Helene Schjerfbeck, followed by Romaine acceptance into modern art communities may Brooks, and culminating with Marianne have fueled the un-idealized nature of these Werefkin. I will analyze their respective portraits; it certainly had notable significance to self-portraits, proving the significance of Helene Schjerfbeck. these works. By considering the history of Schjerfbeck was raised in Finland these women in relation to their artwork, it during the late nineteenth century, when the will become evident that these women creat- country was subjugated by Russian rule. Finn- ed paintings with the intention of expressing ish nationalism

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