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Helene Schjerfbeck

HELENE SCHJERFBECK

Seeing Silence: The Paintings Of Helene Schjerfbeck Metropolitan Museum of Art 5 December 2025–5 April 2026 New York
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Press Release

Beloved in Nordic countries for her highly original style, Finnish painter 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. This exhibition affirms her rightful place in the story of modern art.

Following Schjerfbeck’s journey from art school in Paris to her final days in Sweden, the exhibition illustrates her shift from traditional and realistic subjects to a simplified, spare style. In the early 1900s, using her mother and neighbors as models, she painted abstractly, paring down her subjects in form and color and developing a bold, new language.

Seeing Silence: The Paintings of Helene Schjerfbeck 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.

Read More
The Top 10 Exhibitions to See Around the World This January Spotlight The Top 10 Exhibitions to See Around the World This January Our editors select the shows not to miss this month, including Finnish realist Helene Schjerfback at The Met, conceptual Brazilian artist Ilê Sartuzi in São Paulo, and the elusive Christina Mackie at Goldsmiths CCA. Read the story
About the Gallery

The Metropolitan Museum of Art (The Met) is one of the world’s most well-loved landmark museums located on Fifth Avenue along Central Park’s Museum Mile in Manhattan, New York. Renowned for its monumental Beaux-Arts architecture and encyclopedic collection, it also presents an exceptional showing of contemporary art.

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1000 Fifth Avenue
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New York
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Daily, 10am – 5pm
Friday – Saturday, 10am – 9pm
Closed Wednesday
(1)
New York 1000 Fifth Avenue, NY
Metropolitan Museum of Art contemporary art institution in New York United States
Metropolitan Museum of Art
1000 Fifth Avenue, NY, New York, United States
+1 212 535 7710
http://www.metmuseum.org

Opening hours
Daily, 10am – 5pm
Friday – Saturday, 10am – 9pm
Closed Wednesday
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