Ellen Thesleff (5 October 1869 – 12 January 1954) was an

expressionist Expressionism is a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Northern Europe around the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it rad ...

Finnish Finnish may refer to: * Something or someone from, or related to Finland * Culture of Finland * Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland * Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people * Finnish cuisine See also ...

painter, regarded as one of the leading Finnish modernist painters. Thesleff was born in Helsinki, the eldest daughter of five siblings and her father was an amateur painter. She took private lessons and then, in 1887, studied for two years at the Finnish Art Society Drawing School (now known as the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts) with

Gunnar Berndtson Gunnar Fredrik Berndtson (24 October 1854, Helsinki – 9 April 1895, Helsinki) was a painter from the Grand Duchy of Finland who was noted for his attention to realistic detail. Biography His father was , a well-known author, journalist and poe ...

. In 1891, Thesleff moved to Paris and enrolled into

Académie Colarossi The Académie Colarossi (1870–1930) was an art school in Paris founded in 1870 by the Italian model and sculptor Filippo Colarossi. It was originally located on the Île de la Cité, and it moved in 1879 to 10 rue de la Grande-Chaumière in the ...

. Thesleff spent all of her life in Finland, France, and Italy, visiting Italy first in 1894. In Finland, she had a family estate at Murole,

Ruovesi Ruovesi is a municipality of Finland. It is located in the Pirkanmaa region. The municipality has a population of () and covers an area of of which is water. The population density is . Neighbouring municipalities are Juupajoki, Mänttä-Vilpp ...

. She never married. Thesleff took part in many big exhibitions in the 20th century, in particular, in 1949 her paintings were on display on a big exhibition of Nordic art in

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

and were praised by media. At the beginning of her career, Thesleff worked on

symbolist Symbolism was a late 19th-century art movement of French and Belgian origin in poetry and other arts seeking to represent absolute truths symbolically through language and metaphorical images, mainly as a reaction against naturalism and realis ...

paintings in the style similar to

Eugène Carrière Eugène Anatole Carrière (16 January 1849 – 27 March 1906) was a French Symbolist artist of the fin-de-siècle period. Carrière's paintings are best known for their near-monochrome brown palette and their ethereal, dreamlike quality. He ...

, though she insisted she was most influenced by

Édouard Manet Édouard Manet (, ; ; 23 January 1832 – 30 April 1883) was a French modernist painter. He was one of the first 19th-century artists to paint modern life, as well as a pivotal figure in the transition from Realism to Impressionism. Born ...

. Later, she moved to expressionism and modernism, most notably landscapes. Thesleff was included in the 2018 exhibit ''Women in Paris 1850-1900''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Thesleff, Ellen Finnish Expressionist painters Artists from Helsinki 1869 births 1954 deaths 20th-century Finnish women artists Académie Colarossi alumni Finnish women painters People from the Grand Duchy of Finland