Tove Jansson

Tove Jansson spent a large part of her life living in various studio residences. Her childhood was spent in her artist parents' studio home in Katajanokka, and later the family moved to the Lallukka artist home in Töölö, where Tove lived until the summer of 1942. At that time she made the crucial decision to move away from home, more specifically to a studio apartment on Vänrikki Stoolin katu, where the painting ‘Evening Interior’, now for sale, was made. In a diary entry from 30 August, she writes: ‘I have now started my independent life’.

During the war years, it was anything but a matter of course for artists in Finland to find a rented flat. The prevailing mood at the time was that artists were not considered particularly useful or important, nor were they able to understand their need for decent accommodation. Tove Jansson found this burdensome, and the war years were also mentally demanding for her. In later interviews, she commented on these years very briefly and evasively, and it also seemed that she had deliberately repressed painful memories.

‘Evening Interior’ was painted in 1943, the same year that Tove Jansson held her first private exhibition, and by this time her art had also finally found its own form and style. From now on, her works were instantly recognisable as hers, and even in her role as an illustrator, a new sense of security was established; she no longer accepted just any illustration assignments, but only those that were compatible with her nature and style of expression.

In ‘Evening Interior’ one can find expressions of the many-sided feelings that Tove Jansson experienced during this time. The tightly placed furniture in the cramped space gives an enclosed, almost anxious impression and emphasises the soullessness of these things. But at the same time, the artist has chosen to direct the viewer's gaze towards the table lamp, which with its defiant white glow inspires hope and light and reveals the room's broad and beautiful colour palette.

Already at a relatively early stage, the studio apartment on Vänrikki Stoolin katu began to feel too cramped and Tove was delighted when in the summer of 1944 she was able to take over her friend Olga Nordström's rented apartment on Ullanlinnankatu 1. Later she had the opportunity to buy the apartment and she lived there until her death.