Partner Tuulikki Pietilä
Queer Places:
Academy of Fine Arts, Elimäenkatu 25 A, 00510 Helsinki, Finlandia
École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts, 14 Rue Bonaparte, 75006 Paris, Francia
Konstfack - University College of Arts, Crafts and Design, Lm Ericssons väg 14, 126 27 Stockholm, Svezia
Klovharu Island
Hietaniemi cemetery, Sanduddsgatan 20, 00100 Helsingfors, Finlandia
Tove Marika Jansson (9 August 1914 – 27 June 2001) was a Swedish-speaking
Finnish author, novelist, painter, illustrator and comic strip author. Brought
up by artistic parents, Jansson studied art from 1930 to 1938 in Stockholm,
Helsinki and then Paris. Her first solo art exhibition was in 1943. At the
same time, she was writing short stories and articles for publication, as well
as creating the graphics for book covers and other purposes. She continued to
work as an artist for the rest of her life, alongside her writing.
Jansson wrote the Moomin books for children, starting in 1945 with
The Moomins and the Great Flood. The next two books, Comet in
Moominland and Finn Family Moomintroll, published in 1946 and 1948
respectively, saw the series achieve high sales.
Starting with the semi-autobiographical Bildhuggarens dotter (Sculptor's
Daughter) in 1968, she wrote six novels including the admired[1]
Sommarboken (The Summer Book) and five books of short stories
for adults. For her work as a children's writer she received the Hans
Christian Andersen Medal in 1966.[2][3]
Tove Jansson was born in Helsinki, Grand Duchy of Finland, Russian Empire.
Her family, part of the Swedish-speaking minority of Finland, was an artistic
one: her father, Viktor Jansson, was a sculptor and her mother, Signe
Hammarsten-Jansson, was a Swedish-born graphic designer and illustrator.
Tove's siblings also became artists: Per Olov Jansson became a photographer
and Lars Jansson an author and cartoonist. Whilst their home was in Helsinki,
the family spent many of their summers in a rented cottage on an island near
Borgå, 50 km east of Helsinki.[4]
Tove Jansson painting a fresco in 1947
Jansson studied at University College of Arts, Crafts and Design, in
Stockholm in 1930–33, the Graphic School of the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts
in 1933–1937 and finally at L'École d'Adrien Holy and L'École des Beaux-Arts
in Paris in 1938. She displayed a number of artworks in exhibitions during the
30s and early 40s, and her first solo exhibition was held in 1943.
Aged 14, she wrote and illustrated her first picture book "Sara och Pelle
och näckens bläckfiskar" ("Sara and Pelle and Neptune's Children"[5])
although it was not published until 1933, and had drawings published in
magazines in the 1920s.[6]
During the 1930s she made several trips to other European countries, and wrote
and illustrated short stories and articles which were also published in
magazines, periodicals and daily papers. During this period, Jansson designed
many book covers, adverts and postcards, and, following her mother, she drew
illustrations for Garm, an anti-fascist Finnish-Swedish satirical
magazine.[6]
Briefly engaged in the 1940s to Atos Wirtanen,[6]
she later during her studies met her future partner
Tuulikki Pietilä.[7]
The two women collaborated on many works and projects, including a model of
the Moominhouse, in collaboration with Pentti Eistola. This is now exhibited
at the Moomin museum in Tampere.
Jansson wrote and illustrated her first Moomin book, The Moomins and the
Great Flood, in 1945, during World War II. She said later that the war had
depressed her and she had wanted to write something naïve and innocent. This
first book was hardly noticed, but the next Moomin books, Comet in
Moominland (1946) and Finn Family Moomintroll (1948), made her
famous. She went on to write six more Moomin books, a number of picture books
and comic strips. Her fame spread quickly and she became Finland's most widely
read author abroad.[8]
For her "lasting contribution to children's literature" she received the
biennial, international Hans Christian Andersen Award for Writing in 1966. She
continued painting and writing for the rest of her life, although her
contributions to the Moomin series became rare after 1970.
Jansson's first foray outside children's literature was Bildhuggarens
dotter (Sculptor's Daughter), a semi-autobiographical book written
in 1968. After that, she wrote five more novels, including Sommarboken
(The Summer Book) and five collections of short stories.
Although she had a studio in Helsinki, she lived many summers on a small
island called Klovharu, one of the Pellinge Islands near the town of Borgå.
Jansson's and Pietilä's travels and summers spent together on the Klovharu
island in Pellinki have been captured on several hours of film, shot by
Pietilä. Several documentaries have been made of this footage, the latest
being Haru, yksinäinen saari (Haru, the lonely island) (1998)
and Tove ja Tooti Euroopassa (Tove and Tooti in Europe) (2004).
Jansson died on 27 June 2001[9][10]
at the age of 86. She is buried in the Hietaniemi Cemetery in Helsinki.[11]
My published books:
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