Helena Westermarck

Helena Charlotta Westermarck (20 November 1857, Helsinki – 5 April 1938, Helsinki) was a Swedish-speaking Finnish artist and writer. She is known for her pioneering biographies of women.

Biography Westermarck studied art at the Drawing School of the Finnish Art Society and the private academy of Adolf von Becker. During her studies, she met Helene Schjerfbeck, who remained a close friend for the rest of their lives. Westermarck and Schjerfbeck were a part of a group of female artists known as "the painter sisters." This group included Maria Wiik and Elin Danielson-Gambogi.

Westermarck worked for long periods in France, often in the company of Schjerfbeck, and developed a sensible realistic style, especially with portraits and figure compositions. At the Exposition Universelle (1889), she received honorable mention for her painting Strykerskor.

After contracting tuberculosis in 1884, she abandoned painting and devoted herself to writing as a critic.

Westermarck began her writing career as a novelist. Her novels can be looked at as an artifact of women's history and the everyday life of upper- and middle-class women.

Westermarck also made a significant contribution as a researcher through her cultural and historical works. In her research, she worked beside her brother, Edvard Westermarck, in the British Library.

Selected works

Ur studieboken I–II: Berättelser och utkast, 1890–91 Framåt. Berättelse, 1894 George Eliot och den engelska naturalistiska romanen. En litterär studie, 1894 Nyländska folksagor berättade för ungdom af Helena Westermarck, 1897 Lifvets seger, 1898 "Tecken och minnesskrift från adertonhundratalet" I-III, 1900–1911: I I fru Ulrikas hem. Interiör från farmödrarnas tid, 1900 II Ljud i natten. Berättelse, 1903 III Vandrare. Roman, 1911 Fredrika Runeberg. En litterär studie, 1904 Dolda makter. Bilder och hägringar, 1905 Bönhörelse. En historia, 1909 Kvinnospår. Kulturbilder från 1800-talets förra del, 1913 Elisabeth Blomqvist. Hennes Liv och gärning I–II, 1916–17 Vägvisare. Berättelse, 1922 Mathilda Rotkirch, Finlands första målarinna. En kulturbild, 1926 Adelaïde Ehrnrooth. Kvinnospår i finländskt kulturliv, 1928 Finlands första kvinnliga läkare Rosina Heikel, 1930 Tre konstnärinnor. Fanny Churberg, Maria Wiik och Sigrid af Forselles, 1937 Mina levnadsminnen, 1941

Gallery