Tove Jansson

The period after the end of the war was a lively and successful time in Jansson's artistic career. She had found her own artistic expression and there were no major changes in her painting for a long time.
In the 1950s, abstract art began to make inroads into the Finnish art scene, and Jansson's art also took on a more stripped-down and abstract expression.
The 1960s marked a new active period in the artist's career, when she had completed the Moomin series and could once again concentrate full-time on painting.
"Behind the Scene" (1962) was produced during this new creative period, when colour took on a more central role than the subject. Despite its abstract language, the work is based on a figurative and recognizable motif that Jansson discovered while working behind the scenes at the theatre. The theatre's set design and the various devices made a great impression on Jansson, and in the 1962 work they tower in front of the viewer like a high, rhythmic wall, at the same time limiting the view of the theatre hall itself.