MARIA WIIK. "Self-portrait", signed and dated 1879-81, oil on canvas, lined on Board.

17x15 cm 29x27 cm
Signature lower left: MWiik / 1879-81

Katerma, Pia, 1954, No. 64.
Konttinen, Riitta, 2000, photo on page 10.
Provenance: since 1923 Mrs. Sigrid Bensow; Stiftelsen Bensows barnhem Granhyddan, Kauniainen; Robert Jansson & heirs.
Exhibitions: Realism / Realismen, Ateneum Art Museum 23. 2.– 25. March 1962, no. 241.
Målarinnor från Finland / Seven Finnish Artists, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, 9 April - 8 June 1981, no. 15.
Artists' Artist / Målarinnor, Ateneum Art Museum –Konstmuseet i Ateneum 2. 10. – 15.11.1981 / Tampere Art Museum 22.11.1981 - 10.1.1982 / Turku Art Museum –Åbo konstmuseum 17.1. - 7.3.1982, No 20.
Maria Wiik's Self-portrait from about 1881 is her earliest oil painting self-portrait. When the painting was completed, it was not offered for exhibition, only in 1923, according to Pia Katerma, it was signed at the time of sale and the artist no longer remembered its exact date, so the years are loosely marked 1879-1881.
The self-portrait was painted during Maria Wiik's international breakthrough. The portrait of Hilda Wiik, now part of the Ateneum Art Museum, dates from the same year and was one of Maria Wiik's first paintings to be accepted at the prestigious Paris Salon in 1883. Wiik studied at the Women's Académie Julian in Paris for two periods: 1875-76 and 1877-80. There she received demanding classic art education by the teacher Tony Robert-Fleury, good examples are Self-portrait and Portrait of Hilda Wiik.
From the Self-portrait, Hilda Wiik and Maria Wiik look like they were almost identical siblings. Hilda was portrayed as gentle in nature, while Maria Wiik’s Self-portrait brings out a determined and self-empowering artist growing her professional self-confidence. Riitta Konttinen has interpreted the strictness of the expression as also telling about the misfortune in the love affair of youth.
In addition to the eyes and look of the eye-catching dark self-portrait, the front is an exceptionally freely painted white ruffle scarf. It follows the correspondingly large white collar of Marie Bashkirtseff, a respected fellow student of Maria Wiik’s from Académie Julian, in a correspondingly dark self-portrait (1880 or circa 1883), although more freely painted, more reminiscent of Edouard Manet’s loose painting style.
Leena Ahtola-Moorhouse.