Join us on December 3 at 5 PM for an evening with Dr. Anna Maria von Bonsdorff (Museum Director at the Ateneum Art Museum, Finnish National Gallery), Dita Amory (Curator in Charge, Robert Lehman Collection, Metropolitan Museum of Art), and Patricia Berman (Feldberg Professor of Art, Wellesley College), as they discuss the work and life of Finnish painter Helene Schjerfbeck.
Beloved in Nordic countries for her highly original style, Helene Schjerfbeck (1862–1946) is relatively unknown to the rest of the world. Overcoming immense personal struggles and working in a remote location for decades, she produced a powerful body of work through sheer force of will.
Seeing Silence: The Paintings of Helene Schjerfbeck, opening at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on December 5, is the first exhibition to showcase the work of the artist in a major United States museum. Featuring nearly 60 works—including generous loans from the Finnish National Gallery / Ateneum Art Museum, other Finnish museums, and private collections in Finland and Sweden—Seeing Silence illuminates Schjerfbeck as a valuable voice of modernism. In this lecture and discussion, speakers will reflect on Schjerfbeck’s oeuvre, life, and social context, offering perspectives on this important artist.
ABOUT THE SPEAKERS
Dr. Anna-Maria von Bonsdorff (PhD, University of Helsinki, 2012), Museum Director at the Ateneum Art Museum, Finnish National Gallery, is a specialist in Finnish and European art of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. She has published and curated extensively on Finnish and international modern art in Europe and Japan. Her research and curatorial practice builds on transnational themes and women artists, such as the Helene Schjerfbeck. She has curated extensively in international projects in Europe and Japan, most recent being the Royal Academy of Arts in London 2019 and as advisor for the MET 2025.
Dita Amory is Curator in Charge of the Robert Lehman Collection. She joined the department in 1996 as Assistant Curator. Previously, she was Chief Curator of the National Academy of Design. Her Met exhibitions include: Pierre Bonnard: The Late Still Lifes and Interiors (2009); Madame Cezanne (2014-15); Leonardo to Matisse: Master Drawings from the Robert Lehman Collection (2017-18); Félix Vallotton (2019-20); Vertigo of Color: Matisse, Derain, and the Origins of Fauvism (2023); Seeing Silence: The Paintings of Helene Schjerfbeck (2025-26). Selected publications: “The Presence of Objects: Still Life in Bonnard’s Late Paintings,” Pierre Bonnard: The Late Still Lifes and Interiors; “Model or Muse: The Figure as Subject in the Art of Bonnard and Matisse,” Bonnard-Matisse, “Long Live Painting,” Städel Museum, Frankfurt; “Newly Seeing the Familiar: Paul Cezanne, Hortense Fiquet, and the Portraits” and “The Legacy of Hortense Fiquet Portraits,” Madame Cezanne ; “The Very Singular Vallotton,” Felix Vallotton, Met and Royal Academy of Arts, London; “ Reinventing Color in Collioure (1905),” Vertigo of Color: Matisse, Derain, and the Origins of Fauvism; “All I Desire to Do Is Paint,” Seeing Silence: the Paintings of Helene Schjerfbeck. Dita graduated from Trinity College with a BA (Honors: President’s Fellow) and from the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University with an MA. She serves on the Board of Trustees of the Robert Lehman Foundation.
Patricia G. Berman is the Feldberg Professor of Art at Wellesley College and was a Professor II at the University of Oslo. Publications include James Ensor: Christ’s Entry into Brussels in 1889 (2002 and 2013); A Fine Regard: Essays in Honor of Kirk Varnedoe, (2008); Munch|Warhol, and the Multiple Print (2013); and In Another Light: Danish Painting in the Nineteenth Century (2007 and 2013). Exhibitions include Edvard Munch and Women: Image and Myth (1997); Luminous Modernism: A Centennial Retrospective of the Scandinavian Art Exhibition of 1912 (2011); The Experimental Self: Edvard Munch’s Photography (2017-2021); Munch: Inner Fire (2024-25); and The Scandinavian Home: Art and Identity, 1880-1920 (2025). She began her career with an ASF fellowship and now serves as an Advisory Trustee.
Header Photo: Helene Schjerfbeck, Self-Portrait, 1912, oil on canvas, 43,5 × 42 cm. Finnish National Gallery Collection / Ateneum Art Museum. Photo: Finnish National Gallery / Yehia Eweis
Headshots: Ateneum, intendentti Anna-Maria von Bonsdorff, henkilökuva. Kuva: Kansallisgalleria / Jenni Nurminen. Dita Amory, Leman Collection curator, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. © 2013 MMA, photographed by Jackie Neale Chadwick.