Long ensconced in the Olympus of Scandinavian art, Finnish painter Helene Schjerfbeck is finally going global. More than 100 years after her first solo show, in 1917 in Helsinki, the Metropolitan Museum of Art is presenting “ Seeing Silence: The Paintings of Helene Schjerfbeck ” (through April 5, 2026). The title, in suggesting something impossible, gets at the enigmatic nature of Schjerfbeck’s work, which, though suffused with a melancholic quietude, possesses an unexpected spirit of animation.

I first encountered the artist’s work at an exhibition in Stockholm, where I was struck by one of her self-portraits; Schjerfbeck depicts herself so unflinchingly. It is unclear in the painting whether she is resigned or defiant—possibly, she’s both. It would have taken some spunk to be successf

See Full Page