Tove Jansson (1914 - 2001)
painter, illustrator, cartoonist and author
”When I was a child I would draw ceaselessly. I would hardly have begun to create pictures, let alone stories, if my childhood hadn’t been so happy. It was a blend of comfort and adventure. An excellent mix!” Tove Jansson once said.
Tove Jansson was born into an artist family in Helsinki on 9 August 1914. Her father was the sculptor Viktor Jansson and her mother was the draughtsperson and commercial artist Signe Hammarsten Jansson. Her brothers also became artists, Per-Olov was a photographer and Lars Jansson was a cartoonist. Art was ever-present in the life of the family, and also Tove could not consider any other kind of career. The children were closely involved with the everyday life and celebrations of an artist family, when they lived in Viktor Jansson’s studio at Katajanokka. The mother worked at home, and from her Tove learned that drawing was part of life.
Tove Jansson first studied at the Tekniska Skolan vocational institute in Stockholm, Sweden from 1930 to 1933, and then at the Drawing School of the Finnish Fine Arts Association at the Ateneum in Helsinki from 1933 until 1936. She continued her studies at the Ecole d’Adrien Holy in Paris in 1938.
Tove began her career in drawing at the age of 14, when her drawings were seen for the first time in the children’s section of the magazine Allas Krönika. The politically liberal satirical magazine Garm of Swedish-speaking intellectual circles began to publish Tove’s drawings in 1929, and this collaboration continued until 1953. Tove drew several hundred pictures and approximately one hundred covers for the magazine. Garm attacked dictatorship and tyranny of all descriptions, and Tove´snb biting drawings of Hitler and Stalin alike were sometimes censored. She also drew illustrations for other Swedish-language magazines, such as Lucifer. Tove Jansson also designed advertisements, advertising signs, post cards, book covers and ex librises.
Moomintroll’s predecessor initially appeared in illustrations in Garm in the early 1940s. At first, the figure was Tove’s signature in the lower corner of the drawing, an angry creature with a narrow snout, small mouth, horn-shaped ears and a long tail. The first Moomin book, entitled Småtrollen och den stora översvämningen (The Moomins and the Great Flood) appeared in 1945 in Swedish, and in 1991 in Finnish translation. It is said that Tove Jansson had already begun to write this story in 1939 when the Finnish-Soviet Winter War broke out, in order to escape, even for a moment, the gloominess of the war. Over ten Moomin books were published, the last one appearing in 1970. Along with the new books, Moomintroll evolved into a kind, large, soft and round fairy-tale figure living with family and friends in paradisiacal Moomin valley. The third Moomin book Trollkarlens hatt (Finn Family Moomintroll) launched the international success of these books. In 1952 Tove Jansson produced a Moomin picture book entitled Hur gick det sen? (The Book About Moomin, Mymble and Little My). With its ingenious structure, it differed completely from other children’s books of the time. Holes cut into the pages show a glimpse of what follows on the next page. The Moomin books have been translated into 33 languages, making Tove Jansson Finland’s most widely known international children’s author.
The Evening News of England commissioned Tove Jansson to draw a Moomin comic strip for adult readers. It was published from 1954 until 1975. Tove’s brother Lars Jansson began to draw the comic strip in 1969, and it appeared in 40 countries.
The wonderful Moomin characters were also seen on stage. Together with the theatre director Vivica Bandler, Tove Jansson staged Moomin-themed children’s plays from the 1950s to the 1970s, being responsible for the set and costume design. In 1974, the Moomin Opera was performed at the Finnish National Opera.
Since the 1960s, Japan has been the largest international market area for the Moomins, where hundreds of thousands of Moomin books and other publications have been sold. One reason may be that the Moomins’ family life fascinates the family-centred Japanese. Success on a large scale began in the late 1980s, when Dennis Livson of Finland began to produce Moomin animations through Japanese-European collaboration. There were 104 instalments of the series and they led to the new coming of the Moomins and unbelievable popularity in Finland, Japan and elsewhere in the world. Moomin videos and toys, the Moomin tableware made by the Arabia factory in Finland, Moomin World at Naantali in Finland and other products marked the emergence of a Moomin boom. The Moomin Characters company supervises the original quality and rights of Tove and Lars Jansson’s works. The company’s artistic director is Sophia Jansson, Lars Jansson’s daughter.
Tove Jansson also illustrated other children’s and story books, such as translated versions of Lewis Carroll’s The Hunting of the Snark (1959) and Alice in Wonderland (1966) and The Hobbitt (1962) by J.R.R. Tolkien.
In the 1930s and 1940s, Tove Jansson wrote short stories and travel accounts that were published in Swedish-language magazines and Christmas publications in Finland, and she also illustrated her stories. In 1968, she published Bildhuggarens dotter (Sculptor’s Daughter), which has been described as her memoirs, though the recollections are at times quite fantastical. In the 1970s, Tove concentrated on books for adult readers, including Solstaden (Sun City), Den ärliga bedragaren (The Honest Traitor) and Dockskåpet (The Dolls’ House). Tove Jansson wrote a total of thirteen books for adults, in addition to stage and radio plays and song lyrics.
Although Tove Jansson achieved world fame with her Moomin books, painting was dearest to her. Her career as a painter was at its highest point in the 1940s, her typical themes being simplified landscapes, floral paintings, interior scenes, landscapes viewed through windows and psychologically accurate portraits. Although abstract art made its breakthrough in Finland during the 1950s, Tove Jansson did not begin to paint abstract works until the mid-1960s. During the 1950s she had concentrated on her Moomin books, murals and comic strips, and painting took second place because of the lack of time. Although her abstract works were well received by critics, she felt that she was already late in engaging in this orientation of art. Her abstract period soon came to an end, and around the mid-1970s she returned to figurative painting. Beginning in 1943, Tove Jansson held several solo exhibitions and participated in numerous joint showings.
Between 1945 and 1955, Tove Jansson painted eleven large murals for public facilities. They were commissioned works, taking as their themes, among others, celebrations, fairy-tale characters and Moomins. She painted murals for locations including the Kaupunginkellari restaurant in Helsinki (1947), the Seurahuone restaurant in Hamina (1952), Karjaa High School (1953), the Kotka Vocational School (1954), and Aurora Hospital in Helsinki 1955-1957). Her 1954 altarpiece for Teuva Church took as its theme the foolish and wise maidens.
Tove Jansson received many prizes and awards for her life’s work. They include the Nils Holgersson Prize in 1953, the Hans Christian Andersen Prize in 1966, the Mårbacka Prize in 1977, the Finland Prize of the Academy of Sweden in 1972, the Pro Finlandia Medal in 1976, the Topelius Prize in 1978, the Helsinki Prize in 1980, the Finland Prize in 1993, the Swedish Academy prize in 1994, and the American Scandinavian Foundation Prize in 1996. She was awarded the honorary title of professor in 1995. In 2002, the Svenska Folkskolans Vänner association, Moomin Characters and Schildts publishers of Finland instituted the Tove Jansson Prize. It is awarded every three years to Finns for achievements in children’s and young people’s culture. The prize sum is 10,000 euros.
Auli Suortti-Vuorio
Bibliography:
Jansson, Tove, Kuvanveistäjän tytär. WSOY. Helsinki 1968
Jansson, Tove ja Pietilä, Tuulikki, Haru, eräs saari. Helsinki 1996
Kruskopf, Erik, Kuvataiteilija Tove Jansson. WSOY. Helsinki 1992
Toven matkassa. Muistoja Tove Janssonista. Edited by Helen Svensson. WSOY. Juva 2004
Articles in Form Function Finland:
Andrews, Tim, The secret world of childhood in the work of Tove Jansson. FFF 1/1985
Siltavuori, Eeva, The crumbling idyll. A study of the illustrations to Tove Jansson´s Moomin Stories. FFF 1/1985
Enbom, Peggy, Signed Tove. FFF 3/2001
Other articles:
Ahola, Suvi, Tove Jansson. www kansallisbiografia.fi
Ahola, Suvi, Tove Jansson.100 faces from Finland. A biographical kaleidoscope. Translated by Roderick Fletcher. FLS. Helsinki 2000.
Photos:
Photo of Tova Jansson copyright Per-Olov Jansson
Moominland Midwinter
Illustration to the book Moominland Midwinter. Copyright Moomin CharactersTM
Mural Juhlat kaupungissa, 1947
The mural Juhlat kaupungissa was painted originally for the restaurant Kaupunginkellari in the Helsinki City Hall. It was transferred in 1974 to Swedish Workers' Institute Arbis. Photo: Photo archive of the Helsinki City Art Museum, copyright Helsinki City Art Museum
Juhlat kaupungissa, detail
Photo: Photo archive of the Helsinki City Art Museum, copyright Helsinki City Art Museum
Ennen naamiaisia, 1943, oil painting
Photo: Photo archive of the Helsinki City Art Museum, copyright Helsinki City Art Museum The Bäcksbacka Collection
