Maria Elisabeth Silfvan, as married Lempke and then Westerlund, in Swedish called Maria Sylvan, (25 March 1802 in

Turku Turku ( ; ; sv, Åbo, ) is a city and former capital on the southwest coast of Finland at the mouth of the Aura River, in the region of Finland Proper (''Varsinais-Suomi'') and the former Turku and Pori Province (''Turun ja Porin lääni''; ...

– 10 September 1865 in

Oulu Oulu ( , ; sv, Uleåborg ) is a city, municipality and a seaside resort of about 210,000 inhabitants in the region of North Ostrobothnia, Finland. It is the most populous city in northern Finland and the fifth most populous in the country after: ...

), was a Finnish actor, among the first professional native actors in

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

Life

Maria Silfvan was born in

. In Finland, there was no permanent theatres and no native actors in the beginning of the 19th century; theatre was played by travelling Swedish theatre troupes touring the country. Between 1813 and 1827, the first theatre was managed in Turku by the troupe of K.G. Bonnevier, who was given permission by the Russian emperor, to build a simple theatre house in the city. Maria Silfvan was employed by Bonuvier in an unknown time, and was reportedly discovered when selling tickets and

candy Candy, also called sweets (British English) or lollies (Australian English Australian English (AusE, AusEng, AuE, AuEng, en-AU) is the set of varieties of the English language native to Australia. It is the country's common language an ...

to the visitors of the theatre. Silfvan was hired in this troupe, and was seen as a natural dramatic talent. The year of her debut is unknown. In 1825, she played the leading part in

Friedrich Schiller Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller (, short: ; 10 November 17599 May 1805) was a German playwright, poet, and philosopher. During the last seventeen years of his life (1788–1805), Schiller developed a productive, if complicated, friends ...

's Mary Stuart (play) opposite

Inga Åberg Inga Åberg (Ingeborg Elisabeth; 1773–1837) was a Swedish actress and opera singer. She was engaged as an opera singer at the Royal Swedish Opera, and as a stage actress at the Royal Dramatic Theater, between 1787 and 1810. Life Early life ...

as Elizabeth Tudor. In 1825, she married the actor Evert Lempke and with him employed at the troupes of Anders Petter Berggren and then

Carl Wilhelm Westerlund Carl Wilhelm Westerlund (1809-1879),Biografiskt lexikon för Finland 2. Ryska tiden (2009). was a Finnish stage actor and theatre director. He played in important role in Finnish theater history and managed his own (Swedish language) travelling th ...

. When she married Westerlund in 1827, Lempke reportedly agreed to a divorce only with the condition that he was given an employment in the troupe for life, a condition which he was granted. After touring in Sweden, she spent her career touring in most cities in Finland. She is described as a beauty with a warm and intelligent way of acting. Among her parts were the title role of Johanna af Montfaucon by

Kotzebue Kotzebue ( ) or Qikiqtaġruk ( , ) is a city in the Northwest Arctic Borough in the U.S. state of Alaska. It is the County seat, borough's seat, by far its largest community and the economic and transportation hub of the subregion of Alaska en ...

, Ophelia in "

Hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...

", Emma von Falkenstein in "Korsfararne" (Crusaders) by Kotzebue and Siri Brahe in ''Siri Brahe och Johan Gyllenstierna'' by

Gustav III of Sweden Gustav III (29 March 1792), also called ''Gustavus III'', was King of Sweden from 1771 until his assassination in 1792. He was the eldest son of Adolf Frederick of Sweden and Queen Louisa Ulrika of Prussia. Gustav was a vocal opponent of what ...

. H. N. Pinello said about her: :"In the history of the spiritual nurture of Finland she will be remembered as a child of the people who, with courage, will and restless work dedicated herself to the art of the stage, so neglected in her country by her contemporaries".Maria Westerlund in Arvid Ahnfelt, Europas konstnärer (1887)

References

* George Nordensvan: ''Svensk teater och svenska skådespelare från Gustav III till våra dagar. Första boken 1772-1842'' (Swedish theatre and Swedish actors from Gustav III to our days) (Swedish) * Gustav Hautala: Uleåborgs historia III, s. 429–430. (The history of Uleåborg) Oulu: Kirjapaino Oy Kaleva, 1975. . Oulu: Printing Ltd Kaleva, 1975 * Arvid Ahnfelt: ''Europas konstnärer'' 630 (The artists of Europe) (1887) (Swedish) {{DEFAULTSORT:Silfvan, Maria Finnish stage actresses 1802 births 1865 deaths 19th-century Finnish actresses 19th century in Turku

Life

See also

References