c. 1903
c. 1903
Oil on canvas.
37,0 cm x 45,0 cm.
Helene Schjerfbeck (1862–1946) based Marsh Flowers (1903) on a bouquet of white blossoms she had received for her name day. She painted the flowers in stylised form against a dark background, which makes their white petals stand out as if in three dimensions. This work was of personal significance to Schjerfbeck; she gifted it to her mother Olga, and it was the only painting by Helene that hung in her family home. Schjerfbeck is known to have been happy with the picture, as she went on to paint several very similar versions of it.
