Signe Hammarsten-Jansson (1881-1970)
graphic artist, illustrator and cartoonist
Signe Hammarsten was the daughter of a court chaplain in Sweden, who wanted to be a surgeon, but became instead a student at the School of Applied Arts in Stockholm and went on to study art in various parts of Europe. She had in fact desired to become a sculptress, but had to accept the work of an art teacher in Sweden.
On a study trip to Paris in 1910 she met the Finnish sculptor Viktor Jansson. They were married three years later and established their home at Katajanokka in Helsinki. Signe Hammarsten Jansson had to adapt to a new country and a new life in the Swedish-speaking artist circles of Helsinki. She never learned to speak Finnish properly, but one could manage in Swedish in Helsinki at the time. The Janssons’ daughter Tove was born in 1914, followed later by two sons, Lars and Per Olov.
As the wife of an artist, Signe took responsibility for the family from the outset of the marriage. As a hard-working graphic artist, she provided Tove with a model for working, and to her children, she represented material security and the spirit of the home, while the father, Viktor, symbolized art and adventure.
Alongside her duties as a mother, Signe wanted to make use of her excellent skills in drawing, and before long her drawings and caricatures began to appear in the Hufvudstadsbladet newspaper, the magazine Lucifer and other Swedish-language publications. Her signature ”Ham” became widely known and appreciated. To improve the artist family’s financial situation, Signe obtained a permanent position at the drawing office of the bank-note press of the Bank of Finland, where she worked for a total of 28 years.
She first designed bank notes and bonds. The first special-issue postage stamp drawn by her was in honour of the 700th anniversary of the city of Turku in 1929. It marked a new stage in postage-stamp policy, as visual themes related to assistance campaigns and anniversaries began to appear in addition to the national coat of arms on stamps The 173 postage stamps drawn by Signe Hammarsten Jansson during her career made her Finland’s most prolific postage-stamp designer, and the issues of stamps by her totalled 6,000 million.
Signe Hammarsten Jansson’s style was realistic and functionalist, unlike that of her paragon and mentor Eric O. W. Ehrström, who preferred more ornate and romantic themes. During Hammarsten Jansson’s active years, printing technology underwent considerable development, and increasingly higher quality was achieved in stamps. In addition to new technology, she was aided by a skilled professional staff.
Hammarsten Jansson drew almost all the Finnish Red Cross stamps that appeared between 1934 and 1958. Popular subjects were leading national figures and historical events. In some cases the themes proposed by the artist were ahead of their time or even too bold. The Tales of the Ensign Stål, a collection of patriotic verse by J. L. Runeberg from the 19th century, was not a suitable theme for the Red Cross stamp in 1945, immediately after the war. It was not used until ten years later when the authorities dared to issue stamps of this theme. For the tricentennial of the town of Pietarsaari, Signe Hammarsten Jansson drew a stamp featuring Ebba Brahe, the widow of the military commander Jacob de la Gardie and the founder of the town, but Brahe’s portrait finally came to be used in a letter-sealing stamp. Between 1946 and 1962, Hammarsten Jansson drew stamps with animal and plant themes for the Anti-Tuberculosis Association of Finland. Her stamp showing the port of Helsinki was introduced in 1942 and remained in use for over 40 years. Hammarsten Jansson designed approximately 50 different memorial stamps, often with realistic figures and landscapes as their subjects. Although she retired from the Bank of Finland shortly before her 70th birthday, she continued to design stamps until 1962.
Signe Hammarsten Jansson was also a highly skilled caricaturist and cartoonist. She began her career in Finland around 1916 specifically as a caricaturist, drawing for the Swedish-language satirical magazines Fyren and Lucifer, among other publications. In the Christmas 1916 number of Lucifer, two-thirds of all the illustrations were by her. The caricatures that she drew were delightfully perceptive and bore a good resemblance to their subjects, but were never offensive. The main forum for cartoons and caricatures, however, was the magazine Garm, which was founded in 1923 and for which Ham drew throughout its existence until 1953, producing covers, vignettes, illustrations and caricatures. She also designed the magazine’s logo, showing Garm the hound of hell of Nordic mythology.
Covers and illustrations for books were part of the work of this prolific graphic artist. She had already made some illustrations in Sweden, and began to draw book covers in Finland in 1918. She received many commissions but illustration work was poorly paid. This meant longer working days for Signe, who would work at the bank-note press in the mornings and make illustrations at home in the afternoons and evenings. She designed approximately 250-300 book covers, mainly for works published in Swedish. It was part of her special skill that she was not content with the ordinary typeface of the printing establishments, drawing instead her own typeface. Åke Gulin, who particularly appreciated Hammersten Jansson’s book art, noted that ”by employing letters as means of expression complete artistic balance can be achieved”.
In her late years, Signe Hammarsten Jansson described her own life in the style of the Spoon River Anthology:
I was the daughter of a clergyman
a suffragette
a teacher
a Girl Guides’ leader
interested
in nursing
books and horseback riding
a religious idealist
I loved an artist
left with him
lived through 4 wars
worked hard
for the meatballs of life
gave birth to 3 wonderful
fantastic children
so this really
hasn’t been
too bad.
Ham
For Tove Jansson, her mother was a very important person, who quite naturally became the model for the Moominmamma character. Moominpappa, in turn, displays features of Tove’s father Viktor: changing moods, a bohemian attitude and a desire for adventure. Moomin valley may be identified with the archipelago of Pellinki, where the family had its summer house.
Auli Suortti-Vuorio
Bibliography:
Piirtäjä – Tecknaren Signe Hammarsten Jansson 1882-1982. Näyttelyluettelo. Posti- ja telemuseo 1982.
Jansson, Tove, Kesäkirja. WSOY. 1973.
Jansson, Tove, Kuvanveistäjän tytär. WSOY. Helsinki 1968 (in English: Sculptor's Daughter, published by Avon Books, translation by Kingsley Hart).
Kruskopf, Erik, Boken om Ham. Tecknaren Signe Hammarsten Jansson. Schildts. Esbo 1994.
Kruskopf, Erik, Kuvataiteilija Tove Jansson. WSOY. Porvoo 1992.
150 tarinaa. Suomalainen postimerkki 150 vuotta / 150 små berättelser. Det finska frimärket 150 år / 150 Stories. 150 Years of Finnish Stamps. Suomen Posti Oyj / Postimuseo 2006.
Toven matkassa. Muistoja Tove Janssonista. Edited by Helen Svensson. WSOY. Juva 2004.
Photos:
Postal stamp 1
Postal stamp 2
