Art Sunday #116: Helene Schjerfbeck – Dancing Shoes

On By JimIn Art Sunday

Tanssiaiskengat_iso_by_Helena_Schjerfbeck_1882

Helene Schjerfbeck (July 10, 1862 – January 23, 1946 was a Finnish painter. She is most widely known for her realist works and self-portraits, and less well known for her landscapes and still lifes. Throughout her long life, her work changed dramatically.

Dancing Shoes is one of Schjerfbeck’s most enduringly popular paintings. The subject was so popular that Schjerfbeck returned to the theme three times as well as executing a lithograph of it, the latter catapulting the painting to international fame. It depicts her cousin Esther Lupander. Esther had extremely long legs and for that reason the painting was nicknamed “The Grasshopper”. Executed in Realist style, the painting shows the clear influence of Schjerfbeck’s stay in Paris where she had expressed admiration for Edouard Manet, Edgar Degas, Berthe Morisot, and Mary Cassatt. It fetched £3,044,500 at a 2008 Sotheby’s London sale.

Source:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helene_Schjerfbeck

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9 thoughts on “Art Sunday #116: Helene Schjerfbeck – Dancing Shoes”

  1. She was a great painter. She also had Sweden connections, so her art is well known in Sweden. She did marvelous portraits. I like this painting. I haven’t seen it before. Thanks for showing it. “Pling”

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      1. If I don’t misremembering things I think she became recognized very late in her life or even after. The snobby art people, not the painters, thought she painted ugly paintings. But somehow someone found out about her paintings and then it happened. Well I might have this wrong, but something like this anyway. “Pling”

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